Posted by Aleksandar M. Velkoski on July 26, 2009 under General Leadership | 
The study of leadership dates back thousands of years. So, why do we spend the majority of our time glorifying concepts of leadership that have only been written in the past decade (much of it based in previous scholarship)? Throughout history there have been many authors (some unknown) that have dedicated their time to the development of leadership theory. Confucius, Plutarch, and Machiavelli are just some examples of excellent leadership authorship.
In the same manner, throughout history, there have been excellent examples of leadership. It would be my opinion that ancient history has given us more useful examples of leadership than that which we have seen with our own eyes in modern decades. My point is not to discredit the leadership or leadership study of today, but to give a little credit to the forgotten leadership and leadership study of the past.
Alexander the Great is probably one of the most infamous leaders of the past. I like to study Alexander the Great because his leadership intellect seems flawless. Take, for example, his attitude toward culture. During a time when ethnicity and culture was the strongest prevailing force in society, Alexander utilized other cultures to strengthen his own . Alexander did so with systematic precision – knowing off-the-bat that the Macedonians were neither powerful nor numerous enough to fulfill his complex agenda (especially bordering with the more powerful Hellenic tribes). He took something that was so emotionally powerful and partitioning to individuals of the time (i.e. culture), and turned it into genius strategy and strength.
I’m not, by any means, saying that ambiguity is the key to success in leadership. What I am saying, however, is that there are little, but extremely powerful, lessons that we can learn from studying the authors, leaders, and laymen of the past. Alexander never relinquished his quest for glory, but rather dedicated his entire life to it. His passion for success was unmatched. In his own words, as recorded by one ancient author, “do you think I can relinquish this quest for glory, the one thing to which I have dedicated my entire life? No, I shall not fail in my duty…” Take some time to research the ancient authors and to study ancient leadership. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find.
Posted by Aleksandar M. Velkoski on July 6, 2009 under General Leadership |
Firstly, to regular readers of The Prime Leader, I would like to apologize for not posting for the past few weeks. As I’m sure you are aware, working full-time, and studying full-time, can get rather difficult to manage. Add on top of those requirements posting to your blog and you can easily see how some time off could become useful and necessary from time-to-time.
I’d like to resume posting by discussing the significance of “envisioning” for a few moments. In industry, you hear a lot businessmen and women discussing the need to develop vision statements and mission statements for their organizations. Of course I am not going to sit here and argue against developing a vision statement and mission statement. If anything, I am going to be a major supporter of the concepts. However, how do most people, or organizations, actually go about developing vision statements and mission statements for their organizations? Do you think that their method is effective? Let me share a few of my thoughts with you.
Based upon my experience and inquiry, I’ve come to the conclusion that many people go about developing vision statements and mission statements in a manner that is somewhat backward. It seems as though this is especially true for small business owners. They first work toward developing brief sentences that meet the qualifications of a vision statement and mission statement, and then they loosely try to move their organization in the direction set by those statements. It’s almost as though they use their vision statement and mission statement in place of their strategic and business plan. This is, of course, the wrong approach.
In essence, what I am trying to say is that a statement cannot drive the direction of an organization. A leader, however, can do so. How? Well, she must FIRST envision. Envisioning is a concept that describes the act imagining the future. Its core meaning is to picture the future in your mind as it would play-out in reality. The core of envisioning goes much deeper than writing a statement down on a piece of paper. It’s actually imagining where you want your organization to be in the future, and then developing a written plan to get there. Part of that written plan, then, is your vision statement and mission statement. A vision statement and mission statement, alone, cannot guide your organization. A leader that “envisions” can.
What are your thoughts? Can you think of some examples of leaders that envisioned?
