What Followers Want From Leaders

All of this is so true! I have experienced a melt-down in one of the agencies where I worked, some of it due to the inception of a new "leader" who had all of these great plans and big visions, but constantly ripped the rug out from under the employees. She built a climate of fear and mistrust due to the unpredictable, snap decisions that she made. She did not build relationships with the staff or communicate with them on a regular basis. As a result the entire organization was undermined and the staff left in the agency are hanging on by their teeth, so to speak. It seems that the good employees leave first in these types of situations and this leaves the mediocre talent trying to run the agency. The speed of the group is truly determined by the speed of the leader. A leader who can only spin great visions with no concrete strategic plan is not really a leader, are they?

Vision without concrete strategic plan is just an idea; if a leader cannot keep the top talents, then the execution may fail regardless how wonderful the idea is. Leaders in an organization need to have vision but between getting business results and establishing relationship with staff, there is a balance many people fail, which is why real good leaders are rare. Sounds like you happen to run into one of these with vulnerable temperaments, which is hard to deal with. I feel sorry for what you have to encounter.

Stephen Covey, in his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, uses the metaphor of the "emotional bank account" to describe "the amount of trust that's been built up in a relationship." during these testing times, we need 100 year managers and not one minute or five Minute managers.As Jiming mentions in the above post 'Vision without concrete strategic plan is just an idea'. Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Hence, People, Process, relationships and results need to form the foundation of running any organisation, probably in the same order.

What better evidence do we have today than the turnover rate of our corporate CEO's. In a greedy, short term business world, the primary focus is on one's self. I truly believe the American people voted for Barack Obama in large part because they believe they see in him: Trust, Compassion, Stability and Hope. There is no question people will follow those who bring to them these four attributes. If a leader posesses these I believe they truly have the power to create change without having to fall back on control.

I've just finished reading the 2001 Jim Collins book, Good to Great. Collins says, "Yes leadership is about vision. But leadership is equally about creating a climate where the truth is heard and the brutal facts confronted. There's a huge difference between the opportunity to 'have your say' and the opportunity to be heard. The good to great leaders understood this distinction, creating a culture wherein people had a tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately for the truth to be heard."
If you need some inspiring stories about leadership based in values or strengths instead of charisma, ego, and trendy decision making, take a look at this book. It gives me hope.

I am interested in the dynamics of the current organizational environment. It seems that all of the uncertainty has thrown leadership vision for a loop in many sectors and the economic uncertainty contributes mightily to disorientation and anxiety among "followers." What are they key leadership attributes in times of mega-uncertainty?

Sincerity is the key to influence. If follower's don't trust the sincerity of their leader, the leader's influence will never reach its potential. There's a definite relationship between sincerity and influence. I think that relates to the basic needs of trust and compassion. I am interested to get this book and learn not only about the basic needs of followers, but also about the links between those needs.

Interesting to note the comments about vision, and other posts to date. Using a grounded theory approach to research the question, 'How do followers exercise leadership', respondents repeated time and again that vision (and other so-called leader behaviors)was something that could be sought, and possibly obtained, from the whole team. It was shared. Of interest too was how they mentioned that contributing and belonging where two key aims of team membership. Leadership was exercised as members initiated or took charge of various aspects of influencing, including communicating, listening, motivating and coordinating. Leadership behavior often focused on trying to create a virtuous 'contribution-belonging' cycle. Increased contribution led to increased sense of belonging which led to again to increased sense of belonging. This study certainly demonstrated, like the Strengths Based Leadership study, that high performing teams had multiple leaders who contributed a variety of influencing behaviors according to team needs. I invite contact via Grant Robertson @ www.ugmconsulting.com if you'd like to discuss further.