Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, part 4 of 6

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Leadership Role #3: Making Alliances

In today’s fractured, highly competitive, information-driven business world, collaboration is the name of the game. Therefore, an important competency leaders must possess is the ability to make smart, strategic alliances. Alliances open up new possibilities, creating new conditions and resources that allow us to play games we could not play before.

An alliance is made when two players agree to support each other while also retaining their autonomy for independent action. Mergers do not count as alliances, because in a true alliance players must keep their autonomy while working toward common goals.

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About the Author

Chris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential ProjectChris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential Project, is the author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life (Rodale), which teaches the strategies corporate, military, and sports leaders have used to positively transform themselves and their organizations in a way readers can adept to their own lives and professions. He may be reached at www.humanpotentialproject.com.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, part 3 of 6

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Leadership Role #2: Declaring a Mission

By articulating a vision, a leader opens up certain possible paths to the future while closing others. Using our computer industry example, if software is what will be profitable, then it makes little sense to shift resources into hardware production. Apple also made this mistake, and until the advent of the iPod, the company was relegated to being a small player in a vast market.

Out of a vision, a leader can declare a mission, or in other words, a ‘game.’ His team commits to playing a game that will create the organization’s future. A vision, then, is about the world and the impact we aim to produce, whereas a mission is a declaration of how we intend to position ourselves in this world and the results we are committed to achieving.

In declaring a mission, a leader is requesting that the organization align its actions behind certain strategic roles and objectives. The first requirement for creating a powerful and coherent mission is to ensure these roles and objectives are based on an explicitly stated vision, or interpretation of the world. Lacking this, a mission may degenerate into little more than a cheerleading slogan.

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About the Author

Chris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential ProjectChris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential Project, is the author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life (Rodale), which teaches the strategies corporate, military, and sports leaders have used to positively transform themselves and their organizations in a way readers can adept to their own lives and professions. He may be reached at www.humanpotentialproject.com.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, part 2 of 6

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Leadership Role #1: Reading the World and Creating a Vision

No business is an island. Each organization exists within a rich and ever-evolving set of social, economic, political, cultural, and institutional environments. To a large degree, an organization’s success depends on how well it positions itself in the world. Therefore, one of the most important competencies of leadership is the ability to read the world. This means a leader must be well informed about emerging trends and developments in multiple areas that affect the business.

Grounded in his or her interpretation of where things appear to be headed, an effective leader creates a vision for the organization’s competitive strategy – paving the way for long-term competitive domination.

The capacity to create a powerful vision requires several distinct competencies:

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About the Author

Chris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential ProjectChris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential Project, is the author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life (Rodale), which teaches the strategies corporate, military, and sports leaders have used to positively transform themselves and their organizations in a way readers can adept to their own lives and professions. He may be reached at www.humanpotentialproject.com.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, part 1 of 6

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Today, in almost every sector of society, we are facing a crisis of leadership. This cry is heard in newspapers, magazines, and TV debates and at dinner tables across the nation.

In the realm of business in particular, the need for leadership has become crucial. When we compare our country’s economic performance with that of countries like China and Germany, it’s clear that we have been losing ground and that despite the ravages of the recent economic crisis, over the last 10 years, our competitors have been doing better.

In the U.S., we are contending with wave after wave of jobs moving overseas, markets that whip up and down, and energy prices rising at an unprecedented rate. As business leaders, we are troubled by the regular announcements of once-proud companies being sold, broken up, or downsized. There is a nagging sense that something is not right as we face still more layoffs and plant closings while profits go up.

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About the Author

Chris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential ProjectChris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential Project, is the author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life (Rodale), which teaches the strategies corporate, military, and sports leaders have used to positively transform themselves and their organizations in a way readers can adept to their own lives and professions. He may be reached at www.humanpotentialproject.com.

6 Silent Productivity and Profitability Pitfalls, part 7 of 7

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Silent Killer #6: Modern Indentured Servitude

Today’s world is one of sharp contrasts. As a society, we have more choices, opportunities, wealth, and prosperity than at any other point in human history. Yet, we are also more depressed, dissatisfied, and despondent than ever before.

In fact, more than 21 million Americans are depressed, according to Mental Health America, costing U.S. companies more than $31 billion each year in lost productive time.

A key contributor to this malaise is our contemporary view of work – that it is an endless series of ‘things to do,’ things which have commercial value for the enterprise but produce little or no sense of value for ‘me.’

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About the Author

Chris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential ProjectChris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential Project, is the author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life (Rodale), which teaches the strategies corporate, military, and sports leaders have used to positively transform themselves and their organizations in a way readers can adept to their own lives and professions. He may be reached at www.humanpotentialproject.com.