How to Lead Now | Fast Company - Egocentric, Autocratic or Enlightened 2010 Leadership?
Photo: by lumaxart, Flickr CC www.lumaxart.com/
Mary Cadagin, [is] one of those relatively rare inspirational leaders who are able to get people to do extraordinary things. She is what Jon R. Katzenbach, an ex - McKinsey & Co. director who now heads up Katzenbach Partners LLC in New York, would call a pride builder: a leader who instills self-esteem in workers and builds unflagging support for remarkably tough assignments.
In truth, this is the stuff of Leadership 101: drawing the very best out of people by making the emotional bond every bit as important as the monetary one, feeding the soul as well as the wallet. But as profits have plunged and unemployment has soared, nurturing and innovative approaches to leading have fallen by the wayside, replaced by tougher, more autocratic, and more egocentric styles. Inspirational leadership has come to be lumped in with the fripperies of the bubble: the snazzy dotcom digs, the office concierge, the take-your-dog-to-work days. In many workplaces, the message has changed from "What can we do to keep you happy and keep you here?" to "You're lucky to have a job, so sit down and shut up."
But if the recent period of excess and arrogance has taught us anything, it's that leadership must return to the principles that are practiced by people like 49-year-old Cadagin.
An August 2003 issue of Fast Company, a study points to the measurable difference in productivity that occurs when investments in the development of people are made:
In a study of 3000 companies, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that spending 10% of revenue on capital improvements boosts productivity by 3.9%, but a similar investment in developing human capital increases productivity by 8.5%--more than twice as much. Credit: Mike Jay, BCoach & Leadership University
BTW: Mary's made a few job changes since this Fast Company article. She's now CIO for the Corporation for National and Community Service.
