The workmanship of leaders is information processing. There is room for improvement.
For some 20 years I have been writing and teaching about leadership information processing. My primary concern has been blocked information flows, which, like hypertension (high blood pressure), is the “silent killer” of companies. The calamities caused by blocked information flows impact all stakeholders and are very expensive and time-consuming to correct. How do we avoid such problems?
For many years I taught graduate courses in leadership and decision-failure analysis where the focus was understanding how and why leadership information processing is plagued by errors and mistakes. These courses were deeply engaged with the “real world” of business calamities, not theoretical constructs.
The errors and mistakes leaders make, from supervisor to CEO, are many and varied. It is easy to blame leaders, but these are actually process problems. Hence, process improvement offers the opportunity to reduce the one-time and repetitive errors and mistakes that leaders make.
The four books shown below analyze, in detail, leadership information processing. Speed Leadership identifies the errors leaders make in the work processes that they are engaged in. Wheel of Fortune identifies the mistakes leaders make when formulating and executing business strategy. A Changed Perspective identifies the many preconceptions that lead to big problems and poor decision-making. The Workmanship of Leaders examines leadership in the context of systems, frameworks, and information processing. Each book offers pathways for improvement.
It is said that the future of leadership is kindness. If so, reducing and eliminating errors and mistakes is the foundation upon which kindness is built.
If you are interested in becoming a better leader, you will find these books to be indispensable. Make them part of your personal or corporate leadership development program. Learn more about the books here.