Leaders at Their Best

Ingram’s response to “When Leaders Are At Their Best”

Leadership can be taught and learned.  Certain skills are needed by all good leaders.  They may be leading different people in different circumstances, but the principles of good leadership remain the same.  This is one of the main points of The Leadership Challenge.

The book then gives examples of leaders applying similar principles under different circumstances.  Two leaders discussed in the first chapter are Barby Siegel and Bobby Matinpour.

Barby Siegel leads a public relations firm.  She takes charge of the company in a crucial period.  The firm has successful, but has much room to grow.  To grow, she has to convince her staff to go after new clients and compete against larger firms.  She exhibits this fearlessness in her own actions, modeling the way.  She challenges the process by removing competition between different offices, enabling them to work together.  She only keeps one profit and loss record for the whole company as opposed to for each branch office.  The staff then feels and works like partners instead of competitors.  

Bobby Matinpour directs marketing at National semiconductor.  He takes over at a crucial period - after a layoff and reorganization.  He has to take away their fear and make them feel respected and wanted at the company.  He does this by meeting with them individually and listening to their concerns and dreams.  He encourages everyone on his marketing team to present his ideas without fear of reprisal.  He defers questions to the most qualified staff member.  He shows them that they are all leaders in the company and inspires them to view themselves this way.  By deferring to others he models the way, allows others to act, and encourages heart.  

Taking a growing company to a higher level of competition is not the same problem as restoring faith in a company after a layoff.  Siegel and Matinpour take different actions to lead their employees, but the principles of leadership exhibited in their actions are still the same.