In the June 13, 2005 issue of Newsweek Mr. Fareed Zakaria, the esteemed Editor of the magazine, in commenting about the No votes to the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands writes, “If you want to understand why people voted against the constitution, listen to the advocates of rejection.” The article goes on to speak about how Brussels has become more and more elitist and distant from the citizenry it claims to represent and had no finger on the pulse of the people and their everyday concerns about their own future – until it was literally too late.
The same issue of the magazine goes on to speak in other articles of the brave new world of new corporate leaders being innovative and blazing new trails in the area of leadership and management.
I would say to Mr. Zakaria that as it is in Brussels so it is in Corporate America (regardless of New or Old). It would serve Newsweek well to climb down from the stratospheric levels of hype and walk awhile among the average Joe’s in corporate America who it seems now earn on an average 358 times less that these ‘innovative’ leaders.
The only difference Mr. Zakaria would find is that in Corporate America the average Joes don’t get a vote. Their rejection however may be found to be equally resounding, their fears equally palpable and their disgust equally real.
Most of these new leaders are neither new nor leaders. Almost all of them have replaced Industrial Vision with something called Exit Strategy and their devotion to this utterly cynical goal is so unflinching, their spin and gaming abilities so incredibly honed (they actually even believe their own hype) and their commitment to their people so exactly calculated - that they have like Brussels – no idea that there even exist advocates of rejection.
It would serve Newsweek well to re-school itself on what constitutes Leaders and Leadership - Warren Bennis had a short paragraph in “On Becoming a Leader” that may be a good place to start. Especially considering its last line “ A Leader does the right thing, a Manager does things right.”
