4.1 What is the leader s role in developing an organization?

The Company leader is more than just the captain of the ship. He is also the Company visionary, the head of the parade, and the first over the hill. His primary role is to assess the future, compare it to the current state and persuade the employees to transform the Company to that vision.

The leader uses resources available to continually evaluate future events. What will the customer want? What will the competition do to satisfy customer needs? And what environmental factors will either help or hinder their ability to meet future customer expectations. The leader alone cannot accomplish this task. They must marshal the troops. They must motivate the employees to prepare the organization for future customer demands. They must continually communicate issues, urgencies, visions and strategies to inspire the employees to act.

Figure 4.1: Leader Communication

Leaders communicate primarily through speeches: they transmit live by video, e-mail, memos, newsletters and Company Web pages. This drumbeat to communicate the message must be continuously repeated as each method has a relatively short motivational half-life.

To keep the vision and motivation alive, leaders, through their message, carefully shape the organization s culture the culture being a common set of values, beliefs and code of conduct or behaviours that need to be accepted by all within the organization. An organization s culture is defined by strong belief systems and values accepted by most of its members.

The leader, through continuously repeating the message,...