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“What is Missing

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We asked the question:“What is Missing

Most in Leaders Today?”

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“What is Missing Most in Leaders Today?”

C. Salamone wrote:

I think it really depends on the individual. Everyone has something that they need to improve.

I would say though that courage is one that immediately comes to mind.

Hope that helps!

S. Iqbal wrote:

Humility.

You will get better results from people who know that the leader is someone who appreciates success but realizes that it is not an individual effort but a team effort.


“What is Missing Most in Leaders Today?”A. Laudenslager wrote:

Too many leaders in the public and private sectors lack the courage necessary to honor their obligations to others and to uphold the essential values of leadership.

~John McCain, U.S. Senator

A. Stafford wrote:

Many leaders lack a shared purpose with their followers. The leader's outcomes are disconnected from their team's.

Example: a CEO who gets a bonus while his company's stock price is dropping (shareholders), and employees are getting laid off. It has become everyone-for-himself rather than a shared purpose and shared outcomes.



T. Seamon wrote: Courage

J. H. Brondum wrote:

Emotional Intelligence.

I believe the way leaders are recruited and assessed is where you will find a lot of root causes to answer your very relevant question.



C. Norris wrote:

If we are talking political leaders -- I believe they lack vision. Too many are simply saying what they believe with get them the votes. I miss the days of Robert Kennedy when you know that the words spoken were what drove him.

I have also at times experienced this lack of vision in business. Many are so worried about having customers that they forget why they started in the business in the first place.



S. M. Smith wrote:

A Vision. The ability to create a consensus to achieve that vision. A bedrock of principles. A moral compass.

Source: Professor R.Fears, Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma

P. Mateo wrote:

The answer is far more simple: Intergrity, character, and the willingness to lead!

A. Greere wrote:

Listening



K. Thomas wrote:

Great question, one that I'm sure will generate a wide variety of answers. I believe many leaders today under-utilize and underestimate the talent within their organizations. I have seen many wonderfully talented people leave organizations, not because of money, but because they weren't challenged or given an opportunity to contribute fully to the organization. If leaders viewed every hiring decision as a $1-3MM+ investment I think they would spend more time figuring out to maximize the potential return in that investment. Leaders who allow talent to take intelligent risk, support them behind the scenes to set them up for success, and use failure as a means of learning rather than blaming, will ultimately take an organization further than one who manages by command/control/edit.



M. Aitken wrote:

Doing the impossible. The jobs of top leaders are massive and balancing the human high-touch side with the grittier task requirements without dropping from exhaustion or extensive (and probably still illegal) cloning is daunting.

That our top leaders manage this at all is extraordinary and the fact that some manage it well is near miraculous.



J. Page wrote:

Ethics, humility, integrity, compassion and a passion for people!

True leadership has always required good doses of the above along with business smarts and a measure of good luck too! Too many of the narcissistic 'leaders' of today have forgotten these.

K. Daisley wrote:

Humility, integrity, and common sense.

J. Weinberg wrote:

What is missing most in leaders today? They're not asking this great question of themselves.



G. Mann wrote:

I think this question needs to be asked over and over again, keeping the spotlight and the focus in the areas that need the improvement.

With all due respect, in my view there is no one thing across the board that is lacking. Each of us (each of our leaders) has our/their own set of blind spots. While some will be overlapping, there is not one unique blind spot shared by all. Perhaps it is the notion of believing that there is a unique primary blind spot.

If we could get past that, then we could start on the difficult work that remains of filling in all the gaps that contribute to the leadership vacuum. Regards, and thank you very much for the question.



B. Cole wrote:

Servitude

P. Joyner wrote:

My one word is "listening."

T. Cervoni wrote:

Courage!

J. Mayes wrote:

Trustworthiness



D. Scott wrote:

Very interesting question that will spark some interesting responses. I feel the most critical element of being a leader is having a clear vision and the courage and conviction to fulfill that vision.

The leader must ensure their vision is communicated effectively to the team that must fulfill that vision. The team must see that the leader is consistent in that all energy is focused on the vision.

Just my two cents worth.



B. Brinkman wrote:

The ability to genuinely be a servant leader and attend to the team's needs over personal desires.

A healthy and focused team makes exciting things happen and they must all have the energy to do the heavy lifting.

A servant leader creates and releases that energy in their team.


“What is Missing Most in Leaders Today?”J. Inman Ed.M. PHR wrote:

This is a broad question. My field is conversational leadership so I have to lead with "they are not willing to be in conversation with anyone and everyone around them including front line, peers, superiors, and clients". It is rare to see someone be able to lead effectively from spread sheets. Must get engaged with those around them. Only in this way can they get the insights they need to create a sustainable high performance community. I also have a list of those attributes that are important to me as a leader and they are listed here:

Living systems perspective :: Transparency :: Vision :: Integrity Asking questions that matter :: Create conversations :: Creating

feedback loops Tapping into the potential of the team :: Curiosity :: Passion :: Courage


“What is Missing Most in Leaders Today?”A. Villar-Woodworth wrote:

I don't like to see leadership as a group of attributes...to me leaders need to understand how leadership really works in order to be good at it...if simplified, leadership can be very frustrating for everyone...

First, leaders need to acknowledge leadership more as an event and from there see the opportunity to build it...that's where the tricky part is at to me. Also, Some things can be easily learned like giving direction, supporting you employees or knowing when to delegate, but to be a successful leader (that with committed and unconditional followers) you need to deeply know how human nature works...



Y. Haidai wrote:

Charisma! The ability and will to create and spread great ideas and lead people in fulfilling those.



T.L. Maurer wrote:

There seems to be a gaping hole where ethics and integrity used to be a critical part of being a leader. So much is now focused on the 'me' and so little on the 'us' of an organization.

The exceptional leaders are a part of the team, not just the one cracking the whip, placing unreasonable demands on their staff, demanding loyalty but giving none in return.



C. Baula wrote:

Integrity... Character... Honesty... Sincerity...

and most importantly...RESPECT for people they work with.

A. Saeed, PMP wrote:

I would say what is lacked by most 'Leaders' is Ethics and a sense that all Life is ultimately connected.

When they are drunk with 'Power', it impedes and disables their ability to make a difference where it matters most, People and their lives around them.

This may be the powerlessness of the worst kind.


R. Schwartz-Hebron wrote:

I vote for a combination of kindness and excellence. By kindness I mean things like respect for others and yourself, clear boundaries with compassion etc.

By excellence I mean a combination of three skills: • Simplicity - the ability to see things as they truly are • Systemic thinking - the ability to use subconscious thinking to produce snapshot decisions in face of complex dynamic challenges. • Real Knowledge - the ability to teach others Simplicity and Systemic Thinking which is the ability to teach expert skills to novices (i.e. the ability to articulate and train others in prioritizing, strategizing, creativity etc.--things we think are in the "either you have it or you don't" category.)

The result is a combination of four factors with kindness sustaining excellence and vise versa.



R. Wall wrote:

Listening

Jim Estill wrote:

Stamina Ability to inspire people

M. Dziekan wrote:

Openness

K. Featsent wrote:

Communication


“What is Missing Most in Leaders Today?”B. Potta wrote:

1. Success: Most leaders understand Success as Own Success and focus much attention to individual success pursuits. True leader will achieve Own Success by ensuring every one in his team Succeeds, and much attention will be focused on how as a leader I can help each one in my team succeed. 2. People: Most leaders remain managers and limit their efforts to managing people’s time, tasks, etc.. True leader will focus on how he/she can help individuals learn and support them to be able to do their job successfully and aid in career building. 3. Primary Responsibility: While a Managers primary responsibility is to ensure the job at hand is done, a leader’s primary responsibility will be to create a team with able people and support them get the job done.



A. Paranjpe wrote:

Leaders just don't know the meaning of Leadership anymore! Their management degrees teach them that its all about being the one who is most vocal on the floor. However, today's leaders lack vision, empathy, courage to stand up for their subordinates, and hindsight into a subordinate role they once were in.

V. Mani wrote:

Here you go with my answers on what generally Leaders of these days miss out in general:Personal integrity Willingness to be accountable Awareness of how business works Caring about seeing the company succeed Commitment to continued learning Succession Planning Transformational Leadership skills



V. Prabhu wrote:

I can rank them in the following order:

1. Courage 2. Creative problem solving 3. Openness 4. Work/Life Balance 5. Delegation

J. Arora wrote:

A single word but the most desiring attribute for organizational and self success: "COMMITMENT."


S. Hansen wrote:

What is missing? The ability to stimulate leadership in the people you work with! A lot of 'leaders' are just managing (themselves) in other to control others.

What's the need for leadership? The philosophy of Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) inspires me in relation to the topic of leadership. He suggests 5 guidelines that can help develop bright ideas and stimulate new perspectives; for people, projects or complicated assignments. 1. Be attentive ! (look, listen, be aware of the situation and what others ask from you) 2. Be intelligent ! (try to read, write, understand en give structure) 3. Be reasonable ! (look at the insight, try not to judge too fast or to it prudently) 4. Be responsible ! (answer others or answer the situation and look in the mirror once in a while and face the influence you have on others) 5. Be in love ! (BE there, put your heart into the things you do, give your passion to your projects and people and say: Yes, I do)



T. Best wrote:

I would add to the list:

Emotional Intelligence and Cross-Cultural awareness.

This second one is growing in importance and both are very hard to learn as this will not come out of a book or classroom.



A. Khan wrote:

I can see a lot of very intelligent answers, so I shall not try and list what they do not have. I will say something that they have, and that makes them what they are.

Most leaders today are working for themselves, and not for the good of their job, the company, and even their own country. They are striving very hard to benefit themselves, and make hollow claims that they are working for the common good. I believe a lot of things need to be changed to change this attitude.



A. Levene wrote:

A commitment to training their vision, thought, speech and action in an altruistic way.

What the world needs is Noble leadership.

J. Bassett wrote:

Truthfulness/Honesty - with themselves and their teams.

Ability to say, "I think we're headed the wrong direction. Let's stop and check the map."



A. Mittal wrote:

I feel the most important thing in a leader should be first do the things yourself, set examples, show the way of doing things and then expect the results from your team. But this is lacking in most of the leaders.

A leader must be innovative, he should find more and more ways of performance. A Leader should work as if everyday is his first day on job and he/she will have to prove him/herself to the management/colleagues and to the subordinates by this he will always be aggressive, enthusiastic, attached with everyone in the company, will always understand the basic problems and will always be fresh.



O. Shani wrote:

I think that the main problem is that we have too many instant-made managers who are not leaders at all.

In nature, leaders have to fight their way up in a way that ensures the survival of the fittest - and this is the healthy way it should be in human organizations as well. Instead, people are in many cases dropped down into positions just because the have the right connections or graduated the right business school.



L. N. Kristiansen wrote:

I can only answer with yet another question!

“Do you, Dear Manager, meet your personnel with the same enthusiasm, loyalty, vision and open mindedness that you expect from them?”


“What is Missing Most in Leaders Today?”C. Predeanu wrote:

Great and hard question...

I think work / life balance in the most important issue at this moment - The time for us - I think we need to provide trainings about "Time Management" or "SCEM for our internal resources " or a BSC - life, work, family, career perspective...

L. Becerra wrote:

It's a great question, from my point is the ability to help people to develop progress in their course of their professional activities or private life in order they unleash their potential. In a nutshell putting people first rather than oneself.



J. Adams wrote:

Dedication

J. Anastasio wrote:

Inspiring

C.Cook wrote:

Integrity

F. Gerard wrote:

Being consistent


T. Corbett wrote:

Interesting question.

In accessing leadership we need to be aware of our own perceptions of leadership. Many of the attributes you and others have mentioned mention are common in leaders, and others, and no one person can exhibit them all. Yet this often what we expect then we have our own perception to consider. I can look at leaders I know and find fault and others will look at the same leaders and think highly of them. Political leaders are a prime example of this. Rather than consider what is lacking in our leaders perhaps what need to do is “…end the myth of the complete leader: the flawless leader person at the top who’s got it all figured out.” (Ancona, Malone, Orlikowski and Senge, 2007, Harvard Business Review “In praise of the incomplete leader).

As this article points out the incompetent leader is one who is unaware of their relative strengths and weaknesses. So to actually answer your question that attribute that is missing most often from people in leadership positions who do not exhibit real leadership is self awareness.



S. Mehta wrote:

Many of the business leaders today mostly lack one thing - Long term strategy aligned with their vision.

That is why we see different procedures coming out every time an organizational leadership is changed ! ( which is so unlikely in organizations like Toyota where core strategies never gets changed despite of change in leadership..)



L. Lindsay wrote:

Honesty and authenticity as attributes.

Inquiry - Asking the best right questions as a way of leading

P. Heppding wrote:

Openness....

In good and bad times, the people that a leader is responsible for may not have a clear understanding of the current state of the firm/organization for the simple reason that the leader hasn't been open enough or has been open about the necessary things.


“What is Missing Most in Leaders Today?”B. Clere wrote:

If there were just one attribute that I believe that a successful leader must have, it would be integrity. Without it the leader will sooner or later, rise to the level of great pride or fall into the pit of despair. Others must know just as King David wrote in the Psalm that they can be judged according to their integrity.

If others know that what you say is truth and you will stand behind whatever you have said, even to your own hurt, others will follow that.



J. Estill wrote:

Stamina Ability to inspire people

J. Kennedy wrote:

One word from a professional speaker is like asking my son to have one chocolate on Easter Sunday.....

Empathy is what is missing most!

T. Troyer wrote:

My one word would be: Empathy.



N. Botten wrote:

A sense of duty, a sense of honour, humility, integrity. All are essential i believe

G. Tsanava wrote:

I believe most of them can't integrate vision with action eventually becoming more dreamers than visionary leaders.

S. Jatain wrote:

Lack of really good opportunities where leaders can actually show/prove what they got to offer based on their immediate responsibilities. Office politics is ruling the corporate sector. Beggars are choosers. Leaders are battling the so called 'Internal Politics'.



C. Bragg wrote: Good question Tom. I wonder how many see the word "leader" and think "manager". There is a HUGE difference between the two.

I would like to see more people in leadership roles LEAD those they are charged to manage. Successful leaders have a vision for what they seek to accomplish, where they want to go, and are adept at communicating it AND reinforcing its pursuit everyday. Successful leaders hand out equal amounts of responsibility and authority to those they lead with the confidence that doing so is the only way of reaching the shared vision. Doing so positions people to manage themselves which has proved to be quite effective.

Too many people in management positions think that leadership comes from their title or level of responsibility. It doesn’t work that way.

So what attribute do I wish "leaders” were better at? Leading.



G. Robinson wrote:

If we can get it out of our heads that “anyone can be a leader” and start to appreciate that leadership and management are two different but complimentary roles in an organization, great things can happen. Leaders are not always able to manage and managers are not always able to lead. And those who can’t, shouldn’t

So I guess my short answer is, successful leaders today lack leadership and/or the right followers.


“What is Missing Most in Leaders Today?”G. Clarke wrote:

This is paraphrasing something Henry Kissinger said, a few years back and resonates still greater today, in the age of the Internet enabled sound bite...

The modern leader, whether a political, religious or business leader is less interested in being a practitioner than a superstar. Practitioners walk alone; stars derive their status from approbation.

Practitioners are defined by inner values, stars by consensus. When a leader’s views are forged in white elephant committees and ratified by sycophants, disproportioned levels of insecurity and superficiality become congenital. Mediocrity replaces meritocracy, and indecision masquerades as consensus building.

Again - pick the forum and apply the observation.



J.S. Rajeski wrote:

A few quotes come to mind:

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi.

“A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.” – James Freeman Clarke.

"This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease." – Robert Kennedy.



J.S. Rajeski wrote:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." – Dwight Eisenhower.



J.S. Rajeski wrote:

“The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are: Equality of opportunity for youth and for others. Jobs for those who can work. Security for those who need it. The ending of special privilege for the few. The preservation of civil liberties for all. The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living. These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world.” – Franklin D Roosevelt, State of the Union Address, 1941.



S. Yantra wrote:

Honesty and Statesmanship -- Today leaders have given a pass to these qualities which our forefathers are known for us .

I guess the leadership qualities do change with time???



K. Daisley wrote:

Interesting piece. I also think that there is a division between leadership and management - when it comes to roles that it. A manager can definitely be a leader. I am thinking more of the CEO leader as opposed to the manager leader.

One thing I have experienced in a few of my positions is CEO managers - the "captains of the ships" so to speak becoming task managers when they should be at the helm, while the manager leaders are the ones really steering the ship. I think the difference between these two is also the soft skills characteristics you mentioned.



M. Juneja wrote:

Clarity on the meaning of the term “Leadership” itself is missing among most of the leaders. Many of the people up in the hierarchy assume it as being a 'control freak".

The biggest problem lies in the fact that they delegate without giving authority, which ultimately takes away the challenge to do something new, encouragement to take initiatives, willingness to take the OWNERSHIP from all those who're working 'under' that leader.

Notice the word 'UNDER' here instead of 'WITH'.



R. Siegel wrote:

True self-awareness followed by self-disclosure.

K. Brame wrote:

Strong Ethics and character



G. Sullam wrote:

There is an old saying by Confucius:

The leader works for the people. When something gets done, the people say: "We did it".

Some modern leaders do exactly the opposite: They exploit the people, and when something gets done, the leader says: "I did it!".

They lack of integrity.



C. Del Giudice wrote: Complementarity and intervision.

R. Elmes wrote:

One word...Empathy!!!

Put yourself in their shoes first. Understand their needs first. Then you can communicate your needs and why it is in their best interest to perform the tasks you are asking them to do.



K. Berchelmann wrote:

Courage -- to make hard decisions; to stand behind them afterward, and to support the values and ethics of an organization even when grossly uncomfortable. To take measured risks.

Credibility -- a track record of doing what you say you'll do. Making realistic expectations of others, and using accountability as a common thread for all involved.

Empathy -- the ability to listen, understand, and relate. Accepting input, and having the personal mettle to explain why someone's advice won't be used his time. Realizing that most people -- generally -- want the same things from their work experience.

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