Valant & Company's Solid Rules
Can Ensure Success in Life, Business
Editor's Note: Today we present the fourth installment in a special inspirational series from business performance improvement expert Laurence B. Valant, who specializes in growing profits for accounting firms and general business. Larry has been a frequent contributor to our newsletter, and again today, we feature excerpts from his new book, Stop Breaking These Rules! 100 Hard-Hitting Truths for Business Integrity and Performance. If you want more information or would like to order a copy of the wonderful new book, please visit www.valantco.com.
25 - Leaders are born; they cannot be made or developed.
True leadership is the ability to get people to follow you. The ability to lead is given to us at birth, and cannot be learned or feigned.
Natural leadership can be illustrated on a small scale (micro leadership) by childhood play. If we reflect, we can identify those who led us during childhood or perhaps we realize that during childhood play, we led. On a larger scale (macro leadership) leaders such as Jesus, Hitler, and Gandhi inspired legions to follow them. In both the micro and macro illustrations, leadership is the natural, God-given ability to get people to follow you.
Also in both micro and macro leadership, a vision is stated and the followers perceive they can meet their needs by following. The ability to communicate a vision is essential to leadership.
Indeed, we would never have known who Jesus or Hitler or Gandhi were had they not been able to communicate their vision.
26 - People willingly follow a leader.
By definition (mine) people follow a leader. Implicit in this statement is the concept that such following is done willingly. It is important to note that this is not about the relative "goodness" nor the "badness" of the leader in terms of values and morality, but rather about the leader's ability to have people follow willingly.
A classic example of true leadership is illustrated perfectly in the British movie The Admirable Crichton starring Kenneth More. In this old movie, a British noble family is traveling on the high seas with its retinue of servants. The ship encounters a storm and sinks, and the noble family and its servants find themselves shipwrecked on an island. Because survival is at stake, roles can and are reversed, and the natural leader takes over. The fact that this leader is the butler and not the lord makes for an entertaining movie, but more importantly demonstrates the point of leadership and followership absolutely.
So while the lord had been born into a position of leadership, when circumstances opened the door for true leadership, the butler emerges as the leader. The butler provided the vision (survival) and the means to execute the vision. Strictly against the mores of British society, the aristocrats willingly aligned their vision (also survival) with that of the true leader and followed him willingly, to their mutual success - they survived!
True leadership is simply the ability to have people follow you, willingly. When someone with natural leadership abilities leads, they are followed. And as in the case of the butler, these abilities were not given by position or taught to him, they were God given!
27 - Rarely is a true leader in the position of leadership.
Positions of leadership rarely are filled by true leaders. To begin with, there are very few true leaders, so there is a small pool from which to choose. And rarely are the decision-makers knowledgeable about true leadership. They rely upon qualitative and anecdotal information presented by very expensive search firms and industrial psychologists. All too often, while well intended, these groups miss the mark grievously.
If decision-makers applied this simple definition of leadership - 1) the ability to have people follow 2) the ability to communicate a vision that people will embrace - they would fill leadership positions with true leaders.
It must be noted that true leadership does not guarantee management competence. Organization planning must deal not just with correctly filling the positions of leadership, but also those reporting to the leader. Those who execute the leader's vision must have strong management capabilities with demonstrated track records of successful execution.
When positions of leadership are filled with trueleaders who are supported with competent managers, a powerful organization exists, an organization that can deliver on time and on budget. Such an organization benefits owners, managers, employees, and customers.
