Good to Great to Poor

On my recent summer holiday I was relaxing and reading “Too Big to Fail” the account of the 2008 failure of the banking system. It reminded me of experiences I have had with organisations and teams that have grown to success from mediocrity, only to then slip down into failure.

What caused this trend I wondered? It became clear from my first hand experience that it was a total failure of leadership. Leaders “dark sides” – their overplayed strengths were allowed free reign and brought them and their organisation down.
Each case is slightly different, as I allude to in “Inspiring Leadership”. An absence of one of the 8 principles causes them, their team and firm to “expire”.

Leadership is too important to forget in this ongoing financial crisis – forget to develop and invest in leadership, integrity and trust at your peril.