There are many analogies for situations where there is havoc.  We can have the chaos of the blind leading the blind and confusion of mindless chickens running around in ever decreasing circles.  Alternatively, there is cool calm collectiveness and, much sort after, leadership.

But why, in this Information Age where business can be achieved at the speed of thought, do chaos and confusion prevail?  Business offers value to customers through products and services.  Value is also about money and the commercial power and wealth that comes through the leadership that controls a market or a project or even a country.

Leadership requires people and, inevitably, a need for individuals who come and go.  If our leaders don’t keep a weather eye open or just see and understand rather than just look and keep a good head on their shoulders then, as history endorses, havoc will repeat itself.

Blindness

Sometimes not being able to see can have its advantages.  “I see no ships’ said a one-eyed Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen.  He turned a blind eye in the full knowledge of the situation and, despite orders to discontinue an engagement, he continued the action and, based upon his intuition and experience, victory prevailed.

Knowingly turning a blind eye and wilfully disobeying an order is one thing, but being ignorant of being blind is yet another.

Ignorance may be bliss for those who either do not wish to know the truth or through naivety fail to grasp the reality of a situation.  Being blissfully unaware living in Cloud Cuckoo Land with heads in the clouds is a far cry from having feet on the ground and a good head on one’s shoulders.

Headless

Projects and organizations fail when the metaphorical head is removed from the corporate body.  Sometimes the head is replaced by the powers that be and sometimes the head may be better but, based on the Peter Principal or favouritism or even nepotism, it can oftentimes be worse.

Any organization can easily become a headless flock of chickens running around frantically based upon the remnants of any past systems.  Without the brain the body, eventually cannot function – organizations need leaders who can think and use their head.

Heads don’t grow on trees but if a head doesn’t understand the role and tries to become part of the bodily functions then tragedy can result. The head can become alienated and, as the Athenian tragedian Euripides identified almost 2,500 years ago, “Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head”.

Leaders make up a small fraction of the population. While there is a lobby that everybody is a at some time a leader, almost everybody must follow somebody.  Nobody is omnipotent.

Leadership is most significant when it’s absent. Jokingly some people will follow an appointed ‘leader’ out of shear curiosity just to see what they’ll do next.  And then we have the leaders who believe that in their elevated position they can assimilate an organisation’s corporate knowledge in the belief that by working for NASA one is automatically an astronaut.

A leader is many things but if there is action without thought or seeing without knowing (or believing) then any crisis may go unnoticed.  Calamity develops and catastrophe results.  If the ‘leader’ fails to heed the warnings this is akin to an absentee landlord, and by absentee this means a failure to fix things. a failure to provide clear direction and objectives, and negligence.

Conclusion

In the land of the blind, it is said, the one-eyed man is a king.  But if the king’s head is otherwise engaged then apart from the kingdom being leaderless many will be left clueless, but their curiosity may well be satisfied.

Eventually some head (leader) will emerge that will see sense.  However, in the meantime how much time and energy will have been wasted in frantic running around in the hope that things will get better?

Leaders need to have vision and use their head to make sound decisions, seek guidance from those with knowledge, and provide a strategic vision to avoid being rudderless.

Bio:

Malcolm Peart is an UK Chartered Engineer & Chartered Geologist with over thirty-five years’ international experience in multicultural environments on large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects including rail, metro, hydro, airports, tunnels, roads and bridges. Skills include project management, contract administration & procurement, and design & construction management skills as Client, Consultant, and Contractor.