The Façade of Excellence

To start, what exactly do we mean by leadership? The common mistake is to try and put all effective leaders into the same box. Leadership actually has many dimensions and several definitions. This book explores four different styles of leadership that includes “The Crisis Leader,” “The Idea Gathering Leader,” “The Team Forming Leader,” and “The Empowerment Leader.” Each of the four styles is appropriate when given a certain set of circumstances (an organization in trouble needs a “Crisis Leader” for example). The goal is to shift the organization, including the leaders and all of the employees at every level, toward collaboration and empowerment. The crucial need to substitute true leadership for bad management practices such as Management By Objectives (MBO) and the use of fear is now well known and was often championed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. While significant progress has been made, many organizations (especially outside of manufacturing) are either just getting started with their improvement efforts or they are faking their way forward (going through the motions), trying to imitate what they have read in books or have seen at conferences.