Ideas, execution and confidence

‘Leadership means to deliver the bottom line on a sustained basis?’ And it is founded on ideas executed with confidence – and driven by clarity, conviction and commitment?

It is a delight to read about the leadership being exhibited by the Aquino Administration – that the executive secretary issued ‘Memorandum Circular No. 3 (or MC 3) directing the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to formulate the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan and the Medium-Term Public Investment Program for this year until 2016’; that ‘DOLE forged an agreement yesterday with the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) for the drafting of a so-called “code of conduct” for foreign and locally-owned commercial firms’; and that the finance secretary says that ‘the debt of the NFA is going to end with the National Government. It’s not going to go anywhere else because it’s guaranteed by the National Government. And therefore, the management of these types of entities must be improved and there must be a clear understanding of what really is the mandate of such entities’.

We need to continue to demonstrate clarity, conviction and commitment – given the magnitude of our challenges? In short, the marching orders from the president must be crystal clear so that there is no confusion and that the administration is fully committed to them? And that’s what leadership is about – because it is what it takes to deliver the bottom line on a sustained basis? There’s probably no textbook that spells it out precisely that way but successful leaders would be able to relate to it? And leadership is not learned from books but by doing?

At the end of the day leadership is about keeping it simple? Reagan and Clinton demonstrated it simply as: “It’s morning again in America” and “It’s the economy, stupid!” Obama, on the other hand, has not delivered the bottom line – i.e., unemployment remains at 10% and thus not surprising, the Republicans are anticipated to take control of the legislative branch. Who cares if a Republican administration was at the wheels when the huge surplus turned into a humongous deficit and the global financial system collapsed? That’s water under the bridge!

In the Philippines, the writer remembers the many leadership programs where we would focus on people- versus results-orientation. In US politics the people vote with their pocketbooks so at the end of the day the results-orientation comes down to people-orientation?

The Aquino Administration is looking at the NFA and other GOCC’s that are not self-sustaining (and to add insult to injury, the managers have the gall to say that they are not covered by government compensation restrictions and so they could award themselves fat bonuses?) and leadership demands that they be results-oriented and not people-oriented? Because if they succumb to people-orientation, they would be feeding into our crab mentality – i.e., it takes the whole country down?

Back to the MC 3, it pays to recognize that ideas are only as good as they are executed with confidence? There will be tons of ideas as various government agencies as well as other stakeholders chip-in their contributions to our economic plans. It follows that these ideas would be culled down to the vital few lest we find ourselves unable to execute? And this piece could be the disaster waiting to happen – i.e., ‘inclusive’ is the fatal blow?

‘Leadership means to deliver the bottom line on a sustained basis?’ And it is founded on ideas executed with confidence – and driven by clarity, conviction and commitment?

(The Center for Creative Leadership over almost 40 years have trained tens of thousands of leaders globally and continued their research on leadership. They introduced the concept of 360-degree leadership, i.e., a participant to the program has to come with the assessments of those around him or her, thus 360-degree, which they match with the individual’s profile and leadership tendencies. And the object is to recognize where one’s tendencies are at odds with those around him or her, so the leader knows where effectiveness lies.)