40 DC VELOCITY SEPTEMBER 2015 www.dcvelocity.com
WE WRING OUR HANDS AND WAIL ENDLESSLY ABOUT THE
Great Talent Shortage in the supply chain management (SCM) arena.
And with cause. We have reason to be deeply concerned about how
a lack of critical resources can constrain our ability to meet customer
and market needs and expectations.
Putting aside for a moment our collective inability to address the
shortage in a comprehensive and sustainable way, we have a perhaps
deeper need. That is, we are not going to realize our potential with
respect to enterprise success until and unless we develop within
our ranks genuine leaders, who, in turn, develop their successors as
next-generation leaders.
In consequence, I turn frequently to the topic
of leadership in SCM. It is vital to our futures. It
is vital to our fortunes as individuals. And we’ve
got to get it right for now and for the future.
EVOLUTION IN ACTION
I’ve blogged, written, spoken, opined, educated,
and babbled about leadership and leadership
issues, especially in the supply chain management sphere, for just about forever. It is clear to
me that leadership behaviors and attributes are
worthy of serious analysis and research. Sure,
some of what has been written is designed to
attract attention and build name recognition for
the author(s). But most of it is honest in attempting to organize and
codify what we are observing and learning about the topic.
There are certain attributes and behaviors of leaders that are valid
assessments and can be used to predict success and failure. What are
these attributes? Although the list might vary depending on whose
book you read, core leadership strengths include vision, communication, integrity, empathy, self-control/discipline, coaching skill, and
a positive attitude.
This broad and nuanced view is far more useful and complete than
one- and two-word descriptors such as “tyrant,” “martinet,” “
commander,” “slave-driver,” “straw boss,” and “mother hen,” which are
woefully inadequate, often incorrect, always incomplete, unnecessarily values-laden, and relics of an uninformed age.
Further, strength in one leadership attribute does not indicate genuine leadership ability. Josef Stalin possessed (or was possessed by)
BY ART VAN BODEGRAVEN basictraining
Busting the leadership myth
a strong vision and was spectacularly self-controlled. He was not much of a communicator,
though, and empathy had no place in his modus
operandi. Adolf Hitler was a mesmerizing communicator and could focus on a vision to the
point of paralysis, but he fell short in several
other departments, all more important than his
strengths.
We have come a long way, at least in some parts
of the world, in transforming leadership from
the most bloodthirsty and unprincipled, to the
most powerful, to the best alli-ance-builder, to the appointed
(divinely or otherwise) head of
state or enterprise, to the lon-gest-tenured (or last survivor),
to the broadly talented, gifted,
genuine, sincere, intelligent,
and balanced thinker, planner,
and doer.
Today, we are able to think
and talk about the need for
leaders to be many things to
many people, and to be smart
enough to surround themselves with other skills to fill in any gaps. The
Master and Commander no longer has a place
in a business enterprise. The “My Way or the
Highway” guy no longer gets to drive the corporate bus. Even in organizations in which command is essential—e.g., military structures—
senior leaders are learning the value of diversity, inclusion, collaboration, and motivations
beyond a threat of flogging.
FROM PAST TO PRESENT TO FUTURE
With all of the enhanced understandings we have
gained, we, in general, still tend to see leadership
in terms of what we learned, what was a legitimate norm, a generation or more ago. Why?
