What do you do when a division, department or ministry in your organization is underperforming? Is this a time of opportunity, a time of heightened observation, or do you just close your eyes and hope it fixes itself or that someone will magically come in and fix it?
Not only is this a time of crisis for the organization but one for leadership as well. This is where the "big bucks" are earned. What does the leadership in your organization do? Ah, this is something that is usually discovered post-interview and can standout when you're recently hired.
There are many different ways to approach this dilema. Maybe you can look from the outside in and find out how many direct reports to the "CEO" can articulate the mission, vision, values of the organization. Maybe there's a robust team concept in place where the "knights" around the roundtable step up and invest in their peer. Either way, is the culture immersed with people all marching to the beat of the same drummer?
Developing leaders should be the highest strategic priority in any organization! Everything rises and falls on leadership. If the "CEO" doesn't invest time in helping other leaders grow and develop, then the people in the organization won't see it as a priority, and they won't invest their time either. We demonstrate our priorities with the way we allocate our resources. Is the leadership in your organization busy leading, if not what is your organization doing? Do the leaders merely exist, coast, or rely on the leaders of the past? Are you serving a leader who serves, or one that is self-serving?
Leadership is more about what others don't see than what they do see. In the book, "The Secret," leadership is described as an iceberg - the 20% you see above the waterline and the 80% you can't see, below the water. If you don't feel like you're hitting on all cylinders, go out and grab the book - much of it can be deployed in as little as a year.
