“Seeing past the current transaction, to preserve the relationship” means that today’s organizational leaders have to heighten their focus on engineering reconciliation, reciprocity and resolution in a purposeful interplay with the traditional focus of competition, strategy and execution. Practicing the “Being Gracious with People” side of the “Ruthless for Results” equation is now a necessity, not an option.
This flies in the face of historical models of leadership and changes some of society’s basic assumptions of what it takes to lead well. Effective leaders spend most of their time in conversations that are “above the line”, attempting to bring clarity and a “benefit of the doubt” perspective to each transaction. FutureSYNC also truly believes in Tom Peters’ observation found in his 2001 book, In Search of Excellence: “The best leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders. When we share leadership, we’re all a heck of a lot smarter, more nimble and more capable in the long run, especially when that long run is fraught with unknown and unforeseen challenges.” Good leadership begets good leadership that begets results!