The role of leadership is often misunderstood. It’s worse when things go wrong or do not look stellar in the short-term; all too often we criticize, condemn and chastise those in charge. A true leader’s job is to get the organization humming, to get it operating at high efficiency in order to meet both its short-term and long term goals.

A leader must also understand that the buck stops with them, and excuses, blame games or failure are not options, they are totally unacceptable. A leader must be a visionary and get the team on board to become one with that vision, motivating everyone to put in their best efforts, even go beyond, then harvest that synergy and foster that inertia.

To achieve this; a leader must understand the human element involved, including their own, and carefully watch the details every step of the way. A strong leader must know whom they can trust, seek reliable information and make decisions, often without hesitation that will have an overall effect on the direction, speed and all other future decisions. Obviously, this is no easy task.

In a large complex organization and environment only a 100% fully engaged human leader can hope to achieve these lofty requirements to fulfill their duties. Thus, leadership is not for everyone, and leadership is one with responsibility. A leader must be able to lead with agility, recover from mistakes from within the organization or their own mistakes; perseverance, strength of character, and boldness are therefore often key components.

When leaders fail and there are so many ways to fail, the organization can go through chaotic gyrations and recover, or even come apart and self-destruct from within. When that happens, everyone loses, and if that organization is a company or large corporation, failed leadership will determine the untimely and unfortunate fate of all the vendors, lenders, customers, and employees.

Too, the vendors, lenders, customers, shareholders, regulators, employees must be on board and in it to win it, one with the goals, objectives and vision of the company. It is up to the leader to see that all this is working like a fine Swiss Watch. In practice however, it is not the attainment of perfection in processes that must be sought, rather the agreement by all players to move in that direction while achieving the goals.

Flexibility, agility and the ability to adapt swiftly are what the leader must strive for while they motivate the team to work together and put in their best efforts. With such a responsibility demanded, it behooves us to choose our leaders wisely, or we’ve already sealed our fate. Think on this.