Managing Leadership^®

As a rule, we should expect talent to be evenly distributed throughout the world. All other things being equal, we should find individuals with exceptional ability at some particular rate per capita within all nations, communities, even organizations.

So, large groupings should have more talent than smaller ones. If all groupings of all sizes have only one boss, then we should expect to see the larger ones benefiting from competition among a greater amount of talent to fill that top position.

Is that what you see?

The United States, for example, is one of the largest countries in the world. We have every reason to expect that it produces at least as much talent per capita as any other nation. Given its relatively larger population, that should result in a much larger pool of talent competing for national political leadership positions that are probably not much greater in raw numbers than for any other political administration in the world.

So, compared to every other nation (than, say, China and India) we consistently find the most talented politicians directing our affairs, right? No?

How about in your organization? Is it large, small? Is the quality of management you see at the top generally what you would expect, given the simple odds inherent in the overall talent pool available to you? Ask your colleagues around the corporate world about their impressions. Read the news. How are the odds holding up?

Surely there are a number of confounding issues that, in the real world, influence how the dice land as people wend the difficult road to the top. It is unclear what their net effect would be on the playing out of the normal odds.

But of course key among these external issues is the modern leadership movement’s development of the “science” of “individual leadership” along with their carefully designed and widely subscribed systems for ensuring that organizations develop and pick the right “leaders,” or that you develop yourselves into such leaders who inevitably will be so identified and promoted.

So, really, the tendency for larger numbers of talent to compete for generally similar numbers of top positions should actually be amplified by the teachings of the leadership gurus occupying academia, consultancies, and organizational development positions, informed by decades of “study” and “research.”

And of course, that’s what you see, isn’t it? That’s what is reflected in the political and economic news, right?

Next, we’ll review, yet again, the many problems with the concept of individual leadership, and the perversely destructive effects it has had on our organizations. See you then.

Technorati Tags: talent, organization, boss, competition, United States, leadership, administration, management, science, individual leadership, leader, guru