I recently went to Amazon and did a search on the topic of leadership and was returned 264, 228 results. And while I did not refine the search further to weed out non-sequiters like Sarbina, the Teenage Witch #21, it was a search only within the book category. Add relevant video and audio offerings and that 200k+ number is probably pretty accurate as to the number of products Amazon offers that focus on and around that one word, leadership.
But with so much focus, why does it appear as though there are so few great leaders in the corporate world? Clearly we create volumes of products to help us understand leadership and what it takes to become a competent leader. There are courses, seminars, and motivational speakers on the subject. Corporate press releases extol the virtues of their leadership as explanation of their success. The press dedicates many of its pages to the topic.
But does anyone think we have an abundance of great leadership? Not I.
While we do have great leadership in many businesses, there is nowhere near enough. This is anything but a controversial statement. What may be more provocative, however, is that I believe that the reason we don’t have more and better leadership is that we ignore the fundamentals. After all, how much can be written about “setting the example” or “leading from the front”?
A lot I would say.
Thus there is more to come.
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