Business Leadership and Management 2013 – Part one

NOW 2013 is the time to lead . . . . . . . . . . Did business leaders actually ‘lead’ from 2008 to 2012?

I think not! On the contrary, we were led by the numbers and by circumstances. We were reactive. We adapted or we died. This period for business leaders and managers was all about survival.

Like Winston Churchill who led Great Britain through WWII we got ourselves and our companies through the mayhem. Winston Churchill was subsequently defeated at the polls in 1945 when the sounds of victory were still in the air; his heroic and stoic war time leadership was rejected because the world had changed!

The past 5 years has buried a lot of the familiar features we were accustomed to; the business landscape has changed. What we now see is more akin to a vacuum than a storm. Now however is not the time to take a breather. Leaders need to harness the last of the storm’s fury to catapult themselves and their companies into a landscape characterized by open space and not by obstacles.

Therefor the pressure is on for business leaders and department managers to LEAD. To proactive lead their battle weary staff forward into the newly created holes in the business landscape.

Leading is not tokenism. Neither is leading a fresh coat of paint. Leading is not applying a superficial layer of gimmicks and trending buzzwords. Business leadership in the current economy is deep, bold and aggressive. Now is NOT the time to dust off redundant strategies and marketing efforts from 2008.

Now is the time to boldly lead where no one has ventured before . . . Now is the time to dominate.

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before” – Star Trek