Decisiveness! Greatest attribute of a leader
Well-run businesses often take hard decisions to lay off employees when they realise they have to.
This type of decision is not easy and has far reaching consequences. Failure to take a decision can lead to the destruction of all that you are building.
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Must a leader be decisive?
•A leader must be decisive because failure to decide is a failure to lead. Leadership is 80 per cent decision taking and twenty per cent implementation. That is why the failure to decide is a failure to lead.
The hard place to come to is the place of decision. A leader has to come to this place in any situation. For example, survival is the aim of every organisation. No leader wishes to lead his organisation out of existence.
To bow out due to bad management, bad accounting financial decisions, inability to take advantage of a good situation is not the aim of any leader.
Different forces have the ability to bring an organisation out of its existence: national or worldwide depression, conflict, adverse economic situations, natural courses, and of course an inability to decide or to take the right decision.
•A leader must be decisive because all great leaders are decisive. Many leaders have gone on ahead of us. These are our examples.
The Bible admonishes us to follow the example of people who through faith and patience have accomplished great things. Boldly follow these examples and you will reap the results they got!
That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:12.
•A leader must be decisive because failure to decide is the same as a decision to do nothing. How can you follow someone who has decided to do nothing? You might as well follow a little child around the playground.
Failure to decide is the same as doing nothing. People are indecisive because they do not want to follow things through to their logical conclusions. A lot of your indecision would be overcome if you understood that you are already committed and there is no way out.
Stopping in the middle is madness. You might as well finish what you started because you have one leg in the boat already. Indecision is a very expensive thing to do in war. In war, indecision can cost you everything.
Indecisive Germany
Adolf Hitler, an evil man, lost the Second World War (WWII) because he wavered at the most critical moment when victory was served to him on a silver platter.
WWII was started by Adolf Hitler when he invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. After the invasion of Poland, England sent its armies into France to help contain the German aggression. But after their quick victory in Poland, Germany decided to invade France, Holland and Belgium.
The English armies had crossed into France to join the war and fight Germany. But they were no match for the modern and well-prepared German armies.
The entire British army was pushed back to the sea and encircled at a place called Dunkirk. The British army was now a virtual prisoner of the German army and could have been easily wiped out at Dunkirk. But that is not what happened.
The British were effectively trapped at the seaside with nowhere to go. It was at this point that Hitler, acted strangely and became indecisive. The Panzer divisions asked for permission to attack but permission was not given.
Adolf Hitler was gripped by indecision and wavered between destroying the British armies and allowing them to escape across the sea. While Adolf Hitler wavered, the entire British army escaped across the sea.
They entered into ships and sailed across to safety, where they would re-group and return to defeat Germany a few years later. Adolf Hitler missed the opportunity to wipe out his greatest enemies in one swoop. This mistake cost Germany the Second World War.
When it was too late, Hitler had a change of mind and decided to attack England in what was called Operation Sea Lion. But he had missed his chance to defeat the British when they were at his mercy. His decision to attack England was too late and Operation Sea Lion ended up being a massive failure.
Decisiveness is truly the greatest attribute of a leader. Many people are at different junctions in life. Many people cannot take decisions. The lot falls to a leader to be able to look at whatever situation he is in and take a decision he can own.
Only real leaders face up to realities and take important decisions. Remember that the failure to take a decision is the failure to lead!
Culled from A Good General and The Art of Leadership/www.daghewardmillsbooks.org
The writer is the founder and presiding Bishop of the Lighthouse churches.
E-mail: [email protected]
