Great leaders find organizations to bridge four critical gaps

The first of these is the journey from confusion to clarity. Gallup surveys support that a lack of clarity is one of the primary factors in employee disengagement. We often hear about brands and organizations being confused about their core purpose, vision, strategy and even job roles. This happens primarily because the vision so clear in the minds of strategic leaders (or in some cases, just CEOs) doesn’t translate into a practical framework for the rank and file. Too often, visions and strategic plans are vague catch-all phrases that mean different things to different people. Strategic intent gets lost in translation into mindless checklists, as the teams developing the strategy rarely bother to explain the ‘why’ of the plan to the actual executors on the ground. Developing a strategy is exciting and ‘sexy’; But translating to simple non-dictionary steps is a laborious and frustrating process, thus it is often ignored. However, as they say in the army, no matter how brilliant the general’s plan, it is the sergeant who has to execute the last 100 metres. The brilliance of the plan is irrelevant if it doesn’t get to Havaldar.

The second gap is from merit to merit. While organizations strive to recruit the most capable talent they can afford and attract, they struggle to translate that talent into organizational capability. As many leaders sarcastically observe, a new hire often gives their most impressive performance during the interview and after that it’s all downhill. This is primarily because elaborate recruitment processes often lead to a separation of accountability and ownership. Pressure on hiring deadlines, multiple interview panels (supposedly to buy more and more leaders), psychometric tests and obscure power finder graphs recruit homogeneous conservative talent. Fire in the belly, ideological and psychological alignment, chemistry, gut-feeling, intuition, etc. are surgically removed from the recruitment process. But often, these are very important aspects of leadership and decision making at a strategic level.

Organizational politics also affect the efficiency of teams. While politics itself is a gentle word, toxic politics destroys positive energy and alienates talented individuals who do not want to participate. It is the direct responsibility of strategic leadership to remove this toxin from teams. However many people do not, as it is distasteful and confrontational. In some unfortunate cases, insecure leaders actually encourage politics to protect themselves and their petty agenda.

The third gap is from anxiety to self-confidence. Healthy concern is a good leadership quality. However, leaders must make an effort to convert that concern into confidence. Confidence in the training provided to its junior leaders and their resulting competence. Believing they are well ‘rehearsed’, war-vaccinated and aligned. That their core values ​​are in place and that they also have a North Star. And if the situation demands, they have the moral courage to deviate from standard operating procedures within the confines of organizational and professional integrity.

There is an old army story in which a general is informed of a platoon-level attack on one of his division’s forward positions while playing golf. The General did not bother to look above his stroke when acknowledging the news. A rookie lieutenant thought it was unprofessional for the general not to stop playing and ran to the ops room instead. Unless he had been taught by a superior that if a platoon-level attack is underway, the general should maintain restraint because he has confidence in the ability of the leaders in the chain of command to handle the operation. Any disturbance they displayed could undermine that chain of command.

The final and perhaps most important crossing of the gulf is from criticism to celebration. Critique is an overused tool in leadership. It has its roots in our education and social system, where the focus is often on what went wrong rather than what went right. Leaders who are able to spot an error within a score of documents or slides are appreciated for their eye for detail and acuity. The reviews have an air of inquiry and a palpable tension in the face of the critical. However, the role of the leader is not to find fault. This is the job of an auditor.

The primary job of a leader is to inspire. She can be a great problem solver, a brilliant strategist or a highly capable professional. It is all worthless if it cannot inspire and institutionalize that motivation, as strategy, capability and solutions can be outsourced but it is the responsibility of its leaders to inspire the organization.

These four gaps—confusion for clarity; capacity to capacity; Criticism—for concern and celebration with confidence—create a structural roadmap for organizational success. It is the ability to develop and promote such a framework that truly separates visionary leaders from the rest.

Raghu Raman is the former CEO of the National Intelligence Grid, Distinguished Fellow of the Observer Research Foundation and author of ‘Everyman’s War’.