Murad Ali asked:
Business that were perfectly healthy one year may find themselves losing customers, decreasing in profits and difficult to manage in another year. When these businesses move into a crisis situation they need strong leadership to transform them into something stronger that can overcome any current crisis and improve the businesses position for the future.
A business in a crisis situation needs strong leadership to turn it around and transform the company to a position above and beyond the current crisis. This will require someone who has the ability to be above and beyond what the average man or woman is capable of. These leaders have a strong sense of awareness of their environments and can articulate visions that others can follow (Defining the Skills, 2005).
When a leader is aware of the environment around him or her they are better able to understand the needs of the people within the organization. Being aware of their needs helps in coming up with creative solutions to complex problems that other will be able to identify with. Having the ability to articulate this vision furthers people’s ability to envision and become impassioned about change.
It is not enough to simply be aware and have a vision because people must be motivated to act. A poll of big company executives indicates that 37% of them believe that leaders must be able to inspire others to achieve (Beucke, 2007). Without action all of the efforts of the leader are lost. It is the people who act on his or her vision that counts.
It is the results of all the actions that are taken by a leader that truly counts. If a leader does everything right but the company still moves into bankruptcy he or she is still not seen as a strong leader. The profit and loss states of the company determine how effective and strong the leader really is (Creativity may not, 2006). It is the scorecard by which other people judge the effectiveness of the leader.
Companies that are under a crisis situation and are under threat need to have leadership but this leadership isn’t beneficial if there is no clear direction. This is why it is important for leaders to take their vision and implement into a plan that can be followed by others. It is simple to the concepts of The Way Forward and The New Deal that were presented to Americans as a way of approaching current and future problems.
Strong visions have plans that people can utilize to guide them to success. These plans are designed to produce the result of increasing the financial position of the company. This may be done through many avenues such as increased marketing share, finding efficiencies and much more yet each of them results in increased profit.
If a leader cannot improve the financial bottom line and the company fails in its turn around efforts then the leader was not strong enough succeed. Even if he or she did everything right it is entirely possible that it was too little and too late. Market forces and inefficiencies have caused the downfall of the organization. Leaders are judge on their results and not on their theories.