The world seems slowly to recover, we are back in black again. Even banks in the UK are back, Greece are progressing and maybe there is a light of hope. There will always be tuff times, good times and new challenges to deal with. As a leader you know that. But why is it so difficult to act on long term objectives? I think we can see the answer in what happening in the world in general. Let’s take Greece as an example, people go nuts about what has to be done just as we can see in the business society where owners and employees demand quick fixes and turn a deaf ear to. Long term perspective, strategic thinking, risk assessments, contingency plans (B,C and D) as well as living your values every single day is sometime considered as inefficient, fuzzy and uphill’s.
So is this it? Shall we give up? Of course not. The key lies in the agenda of the owners and the senior management. If you want to be a good leader delivering sustainable results building value over time you should openly take a debate about what value means, to whom and what’s important short term, midterm and long term. Also make sure you focus on, and win, the stakeholders with influence and power making sure they understand the layer of objectives and how they are interlinked as well as the imperative of sticking to one’s over all objectives. Its hard work constantly enrolling and building confidence among owners, employees, your management team, customers and the society in general. Or as cynical friend once said to me; as CEO, choice your owners carefully…
