A Failure To Launch… Forward.

Pastor Scott — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:14:52 +0000

“Organizations rise or fall based on their leadership.” How many times have we heard this leadership quote from such notables as Jim Collins, Zig Ziglar or Andy Stanley? It’s easy to overlook this statement based on the fact, in leadership circles, it’s as overused as “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” However, if we reevaluate the truth behind this statement, we can agree it’s a time tested sentiment.

I’ve noticed 3 main failures in organizational leadership that routinely cause the fall of said organization.

Failure to Serve

As leaders, we often take the driver’s seat in our organization and push ahead, subsequently, leaving others behind. It’s the nature of being a driven leader (no pun intended). However, serving your organization can be as beneficial as leading it. Serving the organization (and its members) provides leaders the rare (and valuable) opportunity to peak into their organization from many different perspectives. This, in turn, provides a much needed road map for charting an organizational route.

Failure to Change

Change is one of those “buzz words” that we, as leaders, love to throw around. The idea of change is one that we can all jump onboard with. However, it’s between the initial idea and completion of that idea that drives us away. As leaders we are the front lines of both visionary offense and defense. It’s our job to constantly sell and drive vision for our organization and its members; more importantly it’s our responsibility to make sure that our vision is coming to fruition. Many leaders see and verbalize great ideas/vision but it’s those leaders, who complete the vision, that change an organization.

Failure to Correct

The quickest way to organizational toxicity is to avoid correcting those within your organization. Correction is often accompanied by confrontation which, regarded by many, is a word with negativity attached to it. Due to its connotation, many leaders avoid correction and replace it with halfhearted disciplinary action. This way of discipline, in turn, defeats the point of correction in the first place. A healthy organization has disciplinary checks and balances for both leaders and members.

It’s been my experience that these 3 failures are the fastest way for an organization to begin moving in the wrong direction. While I admit there are numerous factors that can lead to the destruction of any organization, I believe that these 3 issues can prevent or greatly decrease those other factors from occurring.