Being a business leader can be a joyful thing, but perhaps not for the reasons you think! The image below is a satirical and thus humorous look at The 15 Joys of Leadership that are associated with classical management — the traditional or “old way” of leading organizations that still remains widespread today. Senior leaders can look at this image and react in a couple of different ways:
- Be insulted, ignore it, and maintain the status quo.
- Get upset with me personally for having the temerity to write and post such awful and inaccurate satire, ignore it, and maintain the status quo.
- Reflect on the image and its kernels of truth, and think about his or her own leadership and that of their subordinates. For one category and perhaps as many as 15, there is likely substantial room for improvement. They can then take action (here’s how) and make efforts to create and sustain improved leadership, knowing that the effect will be to gain a more engaged workforce. And that outcome would be very good for business, innovation, better and more rapid problem-solving, improved customer service, etc.
Most followers will say that a great great leader would do number 3, and the lousy leaders — likely the majority — would do 1 or 2. What kind of leader are you: 1, 2, or 3?
