Why Decisive Executives Have a Hard Time Being Effective

Most of us have developed our leadership style by observing the leaders, executives and managers we worked with or for throughout our career.� Of course, we inject our leadership style with our own take on the world including our values.� However, these are usually modifications of the model we've observed and been a part of over the years.

The classic leadership model is one of command and control - a system taken from the original large organization: the military.� In a military environment, a clear system of command-control is essential to respond quickly and efficiently - critical criteria in achieving objectives with the fewest casualties.� Companies soon adopted this efficient style of leadership in an effort to impose efficiency on their commercial organization.� This command-control model of leadership generates top-down management.� Decisions are all made at the top and dictated through the ranks of management and staff.� And, this would work fine except for some important differences between the military and commercial organizations...

In the military, personnel pretty much are required to do what they're told.� When someone is insubordinate or abandons their post, there are serious consequences.� In the corporate world, management and staff work under different rules.� There is no real "requirement" that someone perform their duties.� There is no rule of unquestioned discharge of duty.� Substandard performance is regularly accepted and quitting is always an option.� In addition, if the organization doesn't achieve their objectives, no one's life is put at risk!

The result of these differences between military and corporate is that the command-control model begins to fall apart in the corporate world.� It no longer represents an efficient form of leadership.� Which brings us to the point of this month's newsletter.� People are usually put in positions of responsibility because of their good judgment and their ability to make insightful decisions.� And the tendency is to fall into the command-control model:� Here's the decision.� I know it's right.� I don't want to discuss it.� Just do the work to achieve it.

But here's the catch...� Executives - by their very definition - don't actually do the work!� They oversee, guide, manage, etc. - but need to rely on others to get the job done.� In a true command-control model, a decision and command yield results.� Orders are followed without question and duties are discharged appropriately.� In a corporate model these "orders" are always accepted.� But accepting commands and following through with them can be very different things.� We live in a world where people have increasing diversity and increasing choices.� Attempting to "force" or coerce an employee never works very well.� Those terms sound fairly harsh, however we see them in all their variations on a daily basis:� An implied threat of job loss, a poor review, loss of bonus, etc.� These are the typical means of attempting to make a command-control style of leadership work in a voluntary environment.

This is the challenge that decisive executives have in leading within a voluntary world.� They make good, quick decisions and want to see their vision achieved as quickly as possible.� Handing a decision down is extremely efficient.� But while this leadership model is clearly efficient, it is not always effective.� And after all, the goal is to be an effective leader.� Becoming an effective leader is a challenge, however the difference in results between effective leadership and efficient leadership can be dramatic.� But that's a subject for another article...