Leadership Engagement

My associate and I had an appointment with one of our clients this afternoon. Our agenda was to discuss on strategic planning and develop a framework for implementation. Thereafter, translate the strategic plan into measurable operational terms.

When we go deeper into our discussion, we reckoned neither the process nor the system/technology propel the organization to realize its strategic plan. We came to a consensus that the most important element in an organization is the people behind the organizational processes, systems and technology.

"When we talk about leadership, we can't run away from politics." warned my client. "We should be able to draw a line, read the message in-between-lines and balance the situation." he added. Obviously he was inferring to office politics. We concurred with his observation.

The significance and relevance of visionary leadership and leader-follower engagement in managing and leading knowledge workers surfaced very vividly in our minds.

The brief discourse was indeed an invaluable hands-on experience that we could leverage for our future managerial development programs. Though local in flavor, it reaffirmed General Electric's (GE) advocacy that was shared when both of us attended the Change Acceleration Process (CAP) Seminar way back in mid 90's. In accelerating change, GE advocated leaders to identify what to change and think how to gain organizational acceptance before expecting any breakthrough.

Jimmy Mc Ginty, Washington DC Football Coach (The Replacements. DVD. 2000) when asked how his team could win the second half of the game, after loosing badly in the first half, responded, "You have to have miles and miles of heart to win the game and go to the final." Mc Ginty replaced the arrogant, self-centric quarter-master who played the first-half with Shane Falco, a team-player quarter-master who possessed a strong leader-follower connection. Washington DC won this game, made it to the final and won the championship.

You may wish to analyze this case, this case, this feedback and this coverage in light of the above discussions.

Hence, effective leaders need to know that they have to win the hearts and minds of their people first, before they could ask for their support. Leaders have to touch their (followers') hearts before asking for their hands.