Leader, Fake Leaders & their Managers

Lets discuss a real case study to understand the importance of this issue. General Motors and the MASSIVE failure on so many levels by that once mighty company. After all what went wrong. Can we blame only rising oil prices in 2008 for its failure? NO. Its all a leadership failure. Many people saw the crisis coming but there was also a lot of "whistling past the grave yard," as people hoped that this would not turn into a crisis. There was no real leader who had the guts to address these issues in GM and other co.s following the "American model." of management and marketing. That is the problem with this easy bonus culture. Everything is fine till you are getting more than what you deserve. Tomorrow is just another day of month in that organization. Is there anyone in America that want to argue against the fact that for 30+ years GM had fairly good management but NO LEADERSHIP? Who was looking at the foreign car manufacturers and doing some basic math and bench marking. The over riding reason for the failure of these companies is the failure at ALL LEVELS of management to have focus on the future and the will to do what was necessary.I am sure they have best of the managers (with degrees from best instt. & certificates like PMPs etc) and some "Leaders" too. Managers who refuse to take ownership and accountability both. They are just 'game players' who are more concerned about keeping the ball in other court and few reports on their laptop monitor. They could have done better. It is not rocket science but it does take commitment to a better way of doing things, a commitment to curing the common workplace. There are Leaders who pretend to understand everything, are great orators but lacked FOCUS, because they are not genuine stuff. Result is the poorly defined business needs and failed projects. There are many parts to that word "FOCUS" as it applies to business. One of the keys is that an organization has balance between the tactical world of what do we need to get done and what to we have to start working towards, strategically, so we will be ready to get it done in few years from now today.

http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/06/the-buck-stops-and-starts-at-business-school/ar/1