Fail-Safe Leadership
Straight Talk About Improving Leadership Challenges in Your Organization
Fail-Safe Leadership advances a results-based definition of leadership and it demonstrates how it’s possible to grow leaders quickly and how to align every individual’s work effort directly to the company’s vision and strategic plan, in order to improve a company’s bottom line. This book will capture the attention of a company’s decision-maker and allow them to discover that the leadership issues described are currently running rapid in their organization. It also suggests you can help them implement a solution that will assist them in attaining measurable results for their organization.
Foreword
In over forty years of experience in management and consulting with both large and small organizations from every conceivable industry, we have observed a growing trend: there is an overabundance of managers and an increased lack of leaders. This situation clearly creates a negative impact on an organization’s ability to grow and to compete. It seems to beg a crucial question: If leadership is so critical to an organization’s success, why, then, isn’t there more of it? In exploring this question we have made several general observations concerning leadership; and to our delight, we were pleased to see most of them have been succinctly addressed in this book.
The first observation is that leaders come in different ages, genders, roles, profiles, diversities, and behavioral styles, etc. There is no one size fits all template for a leader, which explains why so many attempts at leadership development and/or training continue to fail.
Second, there are specific practices and processes which successful leaders understand and consistently implement. One of these practices is their ability to comprehend big picture thinking and translate that understanding into specific, measurable goals which are then cascaded down throughout the organization. Implementing a goal alignment process within an organization serves two important functions.
1. It has the ability to inspire and impact the entire organization by focusing everyone on the steps needed to achieve results.
2. It provides a process to deal with the inevitability of constant change required to consistently produce long-term, measurable results.
Congruent with this, the authors have spelled out an extremely effective alignment process in this very timely book. We have found whenever this specific organizational alignment process is put into place, it not only provides valuable direction to a organization, it also creates an environment where leaders seem to blossom from within and throughout the organization. The beauty of it is, when leaders focus on creating and implementing effective processes, they become keenly aware it is the people and the alignment of their activities, behaviors, and attitudes that make results a reality.
In this well-written quick-read, you will gain a valuable understanding of these key issues, along with many other important insights. The authors did not intend to present a step-by-step guide that would become the end-all on how to become a successful leader. It is, rather, a refreshingly new and dynamic perspective on the entire subject of leadership that will share proven methods for you to get started on the right path to solving your organization’s leadership challenges.
Leaders who decide to rise to the opportunity for leadeship growth will enjoy considerable benefit both personally and professionally. In our experience, the principles the authors have laid out are universal. They work in government, family-owned companies, large organizations, small organizations, start ups, departments within organizations, not-for-profits, volunteer organizations, and even in one’s own personal life. Their approach is logical and well tested. In two words, it works. Anyone who takes their message seriously will find themselves indebted to the authors for having shared their insights on such a important subject.
James B. Godshall, Former President of Total Quality Institute
(Mr. Godshall is an internationally recognized business leader, consultant and author of several continuous quality improvement materials used with organizations around the world.)