8 Feb 2011

Finding the Great Leader

As elected leaders, the decision is usually based on a wrong decision. Many are expecting people with strong personalities, charismatic, or a desire for personal achievement. They expect someone who can lead and manage the efforts of others. Some even rate as an indication of the physical attributes the ability to lead.

Misunderstanding of what makes a good leader is not limited to these factors. It also includes our selection of personal characteristics. Some people view leaders as people who can dazzle people with stage performances, which can make people around him feel relaxed with keparcayaan himself, or who can think circles around the senior people in the organization. In fact, this character trait and not the indicator of a great leader. Great leaders are shown with their focus on integrity rather than his appearance, the desire for what is best for the company than its interests, humility and forget about his ego, and empower their people in making decisions. There are a number of books already written, research conducted, and data collected to appoint these findings, however, although the company with outstanding views, intelligent directors and senior executives with experience can make mistakes in choosing leaders based on their perception of ability lead.

Take the example of Hewlett Packard. In January 1999, Hewlett Packard's board met at the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto, California to discuss, among others, changes in business due to the rapid growth of Internet IPOs that have not been proven true. The concern among the directors is the change in time need the right leader to lead the company in the future. In his book, "How the Mighty Fall", Jim Collins summarizes this thinking, stating that, "HP is slow growth and a declining stock price associated with the technology sector is growing concern that skyrocketing HP need a new leader type." At the meeting, Lewis Platt, then CEO of HP, will propose early retirement to make room for the right leader. Board of Directors accept the proposal and replace it with Carly Fiorina, who announced in July the same year, where he will become the next CEO at Hewlett Packard.

Lewis Platt and the board of directors believes that the new CEO with a fresh perspective will help move the company toward the industry landscape rapidly changing technology. Fiorina, who have been published in Forbes magazine under the title 'Most Influential Women in Business' and has a tremendous background as an executive VP at AT & T, is the type sought by the HP executive. In the review, it appears that the board of directors made a mistake in the assessment, during which the position of Fiorina, HP's first loss, the stock price fell from $ 45.36 to $ 20.14 and is waiting for a big loss. For comparison, Platt, former CEO of Ford Taurus, grow HP from $ 16.02 to $ 42 and Chief Executive Magazine's award as a producer of wealth to 11 throughout history.

After researching the HP in the near future, proving that leadership plays an important role for the progress or setbacks of the organization. Leaders can encourage organizations in hundreds of thousands of dollars of market capitalization or suffered a loss with a large amount. It's hard to deny that the leadership does not play an important role in the company's success, yet many organizations do not have a system to identify and develop potential future leaders.

We see Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. Since young, Walton has shown natural ability as a leader. In high school, he started as captain of the football team and never lost a match. He became 'Vice President' Student Senate and became Chairman of the Senate in the second year. He was selected as 'Permanent President' at graduation at the university. But Walton does not have a standard description of a leader. He's not Ivy League graduates and MBA degrees. Walton is the son of a humble and aggressive.

Walton worked as a manager trainee at JC Penney three days after graduating from university, which marked his desire for the retail industry that shape their lives and affect the lives of millions of people. At JC Penney, Walton JC Penny in touch with the approaches related to retail-especially JC Penney Idea # 2 and # 3, the guiding principles related to serving customers with the highest value for the money spent. But Walton is not a diligent employee, he hates to make customers wait for him while he was completing his duties, so that the books were a mess. His boss threatened to fire him frequently, said he did not fit in the retail business. Walton seeks to maintain its position because of his ability as a salesman. After 18 months in the company, Walton resigned.

If JC Penney has a system to identify leadership potential Walton, they might be able to pull it to remain in the company and develop them as leaders in the future. Instead, he started opening his own shop which became a rival and a chance to beat the dominance of JC Penney in the retail field. Like most companies begin to adopt the mindset 'promotion from within', the type system of leadership development is becoming increasingly common. The problem is, many of these companies base their criteria in identifying future leaders based on a misconception of what makes great leaders.

Only a few people who can take a great leader, so the question is - how do we create a system to identify the great leaders in the early stages of their development? Do we use the profile psikometris to a more senior role? Do we let people inside and outside the organization decides who will be the next leader? Many decisions must be made but before we decide it must recognize our mistakes in choosing a leader. Organizations need new ways to determine who will become leaders, because leaders affect the organization as a whole. Employees who work hard to rely on their leaders to make the right choice for the company and ensure that employees have a future with the organization.

It is difficult to know the right answer but certainly by investing development of future leaders will benefit companies especially organizations that hire people from outside to fill the role of internal leadership. As a result, the company became the second insititusi such as the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) to assist them in developing leaders from within. Their innovative Leadership Program will help companies develop the skills and capabilities of potential leaders. Forward-thinking company is aware of the benefits obtained by investing them with the consequences of their organization in the future.

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