What Makes a Leader Successful

A Leader’s Success

It isn’t the “leader” who makes the organization successful; It is the organization that makes the leader successful (or not).

Given our belief in the singular hero and the omnipotent leader, this may seem counter-intuitive.  It is.  But it is still clearly the way things actually work.  The logic is inescapable.  You can try it the other way, but it doesn’t work.

So the first and ongoing priority task of the leader is to make the organization that is going to make him or her successful.

This requires the mindset of the successful composer or the sculptor.  You have to make the thing that makes you successful.  In your case, that is your organization.

You have to compose it with great care.  Everyone throughout has to be fully competent.  So competent that they can improvise on the fly and still accomplish what needs accomplishing.

If it is only about you, the prognosis is iffy. If you can make the organization into what it needs to be to make you successful in your quest, you don’t have to hope. It will happen. 

–Lee Thayer, Thought-Leader