These days, we are exposed to a litany of life-changing, behavior-altering events.
Life used to be simple. Events used to be predictable. The world was once a safe place. And then global terro-rism heightened uncertainty.
Political landscapes shifted.
Global warming and scarcity of natural resources made the world unstable. Whereas the key word for the last ten years of the last century was globalization, the buzzword for business today is “sustainability.”
Increased market competition and decreased trust on the financial systems in the West dramatically changed the way people trust business.
While technology has democratized knowledge and information, a good thing, in my opinion, it has likewise crea-ted a “24/7-on-call-always” lifestyle that simply added pressure to everyday life.
The entry of young people into the marketplace has become another challenge. Generation X is old, Generation Y is getting old, and the new Millennials are placing new and fresh demands on their organizations.
As I look into my clients’ organizations, I also see a major change. Many business organizations today have become more diverse, more horizontally distributed, requiring more collaboration and competition. Yet many leaders still stick to their command-and-control mode of the last century, thus they lose talents along the way.
Even terms have changed over the years. Look at how the use of some of the terms 100 years ago compare with how we use them today. (Some genius must have thought about this a long time ago.)
LOG ON: Making a wood stove hot
LOG OFF: Don’t add more wood
MONITOR: Keeping an eye on the wood stove
DOWN LOAD: Getting the firewood off the truck
MEGA HERTZ: When your not careful getting the firewood
FLOPPY DISC: What you get from trying to carry too much firewood
RAM: That thing that splits the firewood
HARD DRIVE: Coming home in winter
WINDOWS: What to shut when it’s cold outside
SCREEN: What to shut when it’s black-fly season
BYTE: What them darn flies do
CHIP: What you step on if you aren’t careful in the pasture
MODEM: What you do to the hay fields
LAP TOP: Where the kitty sleeps
KEYBOARD: Where you hang the keys
SOFTWARE: Forks and knives
MOUSE: What eats the grain in the barn
MOUSE PAD: The hole where the mouse lives
MAINFRAME: Holds up the barn roof
ENTER: Northerner talk for “C’Mon in y’all”
CLICK: What you hear when you cock your gun
DOUBLE CLICK: When the gun won’t fire when you pull the trigger
REBOOT: What you have to do right before bedtime when you forgot that the kitty is still outside
But here’s the deal.
When it comes to leadership, values never change. If va-lues change, then they are not values at all. Kouzes and Posner, in their latest book The Truth About Leadership, give the following unchanging values on leadership, and I fully agree with them:
1. The leader makes a difference.
2. Credibility is the foundation of leadership.
3. Values drive commitment.
4. Leaders focus on the future.
5. Leaders depend on others to get the job done; they cannot do it by themselves.
6. Leaders challenge themselves, and they challenge others because they know that this is the key to greatness.
7. Leaders lead by example.
8. Leaders are learners.
9. Leaders serve and love their constituents.
Through the changing times, while the context of leadership may have changed, the content of leadership remains the same.
So what do you call something that remains the same for the last 25 years? According to the authors’ research, one may think of different words to call it, but it really doesn’t have to be fancy — it may simply be called the truth.
Truth never changes. Reminds you of Scriptures. Just think about it.
(Attend this once in a lifetime seminar on “The Leadership Factor” featuring Dr. Harold Sala, Francis Kong and Jim Collins (video) on Nov. 27 at the SMX Convention Center. Call Pam or Kriselle of Inspire Leadership Consultancy Inc. at 632-6872614 or 09178511115 for further details.)