But why bother. Horses have the instinct and sensory skills to find it on their own. Humans, on the other hand, are not wired that way. People who work within organizations need to be led, or the organization will default to a state of entropy. This is especially dangerous at a time when organizations are desperately challenged to behave as unified companies.
Sadly, it may take a recession for many B2B companies to learn the difference between business management and business leadership. Even more sad is the fact that so many companies will not learn this difference, even if they survive the recession.
Yet the difference is clear. The managerial approach is to cut costs, make the necessary layoffs and furloughs. The leadership approach is to more fully exploit competitive advantage, become aligned on mission and identity, become all the better positioned for faster recovery, better margins and a stronger future.
Managing cost reductions is a lot easier than leading organizational change.
The entropy that now hampers the organization was there before this recession, only now it is magnified by the absence of leadership. You can blame it on corporate culture, but that would be wrong. Corporate culture is the planned outcome of thoughtful leadership. Entropy is the outcome of bureaucracy.
Who in your organization, if not the CEO, is asking the right questions about company identity, value generation, related customer needs and the greater growth potential of your company?
JB
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