Leaders in crisis?
It's been a tough couple of weeks for leaders and managers:
- Antonio Horata-Osorio, CEO of Lloyds TSB, is suffering 'fatigue' at a time of major re-structure within the bank and is now on sick leave;
- Greek Premier George Papandreou will resign once a coalition Government is formed as he finds himself between a rock (the Greek public) and a hard place (the IMF);
- Colin Calderwood, manager at Hibernian Football Club, is sacked on the morning of the club's AGM amidst complaints from supporters that the club's managers aren't being given adequate support from the Board (the same fate befell his predecessor last year on the morning of the AGM).
All this in the same week Manchester United unveiled the re-named 'Sir Alex Ferguson Stand' in honour of their team manager having served 25 years at the helm, taking the club to unprecedented highs - this despite speculation that after 6 baron seasons, he was 1 defeat away from getting the sack.
All 3 of the examples above have been in their posts for a short period of time, Papandreou being the longest standing after his election in October of 2009; Calderwood being in post for c1 year and Horata-Osorio 8 months into his tenure as CEO.
Sir Alex has undoubtedly benefited from his great record of achievement (after the initial hiatus in his early years), winning him the admiration and protection of having the fans on his side.
Papandreou; Calderwood and Horata-Osorio all find themselves in very difficult circumstances but in one way or another are being extricated from the predicament rather than seeing it through like the early years of Sir Alex' tenure with Manchester United.
Do today's leaders lack a sense of duty and toughness to face up to difficult challenges or are we just too impatient and want immediate results, disposing of those unable to deliver regardless of the macro-environment?
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Add Silvio Berlusconi to the casualty list too! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15646536
Yes Colin, and Silvio Berlusconi has been Italy's longest serving PM since the war. Not quite of Sir Alex length though.
I get the feeling we have become a more impatient society but if you look at the examples you give they all look different ranging from someone who appears to have got his work-life balance horribly wrong, to someone who is struggling with a country that has debts it can't pay and has lost party support, to someone who has lost support from his board.
I'm not sure I have any good answers to the current economic challenges but my own view is that they need to be handled working together as we have long gone past the points scoring of party politics.
Like the BBC said the other day, maybe we just expect far too much of our leaders and bestow them with far more power and influence than they actually have.
It's perhaps equally interesting to note the stability of the U.K. coalition Government too?
We've had protests and riots (directly or indirectly linked to the austerity measures to some degree even if only an opportunistic uprising with the intent of grabbing a few additional commodities piggybacking on unrest) yet the Government has remained resolute in it's measures.
What makes this more incredible is that it is a coalition Government housing 2 unlikely bedfellows (one left and one right wing party) and we're one of the few countries caught up in the catastrophy that hasn't had it's credit rating attacked (unlike the USA; Greece; Italy et al).
And this is despite repeated calls from bodies such as the CIPD and CBI to implement Plan B (which may arguably affect the interest paid on our national debt thus negating the benefits of any increased employment).
Does this then mean we actually have a very strong leadership team at the helm in the U.K. and are there lessons we could learn?