Hello Paul:
Two thoughts, and very different ones at that, but perhaps both
are relevant...
Thought 1) I detect a typo/slip of sorts when you mention 'crative genius.'
I believe you might have meant 'creative genius', but there's no guarantee,
and I will take this as an opportunity to explore another interpretation...
The fact is that the decisions of CEOish leaders do create 'craters' and
destroy much of the evidence of the more subtle carnage that follows in
their wake. In much the same way that surgeons bury their mistakes,
those at the top frequently make such far-reaching decisions that
the more nuanced problems that they create cannot be traced back to
the source...
Thought 2) I think we may want to go back to the turn of the century
and re-read Mary Parker Follett and her notion of the 'law of the siutation.'
It seems to me that if we focus too much of singular decisions at unique
points in time, we are likely to miss the fact that multiple decisions are
made, over time, and they are linked both together and to the emergent
qualities of the situation as the decisions made change it--the true 'genius'
may well be in the quality of being able to detect bad individual decisions
that have been made and take corrective action. In this sense, we should
probably speak of 'decision phenomena' in terms of verbs (deciding...)
rather than nouns (decisions per se).
Pfeffer has nicely argued that we take 2% of our time actually making
decisions and 98% of our time either implementing them or dealing with
the aftermath. Methinks we might have more potential to add value
by euipping managers to implement the good decisions that never get
implemented and equipping them to recognize and stop the after-effects
of bad decisions implemented that are now wreaking havoc.
Can we better equip managers to make the good in decisions and
judgements happen... You bet!
Regards,
Dan McAllister
>>>
wong@twu.ca 01/05/02 11:02PM >>>
I want to thank all of you for your helpful suggestions. However, what I
was trying to get at in my original posting is some illusive leadership
quality which may be called intuiion, insight, or crative genius. CEOs who
possess this kind of quality are able to judge people accurately, have a
deep understanding of all the issues involved, and make sound, snap
decisions in very fast-moving, complex situations which do not allow time
for rational analysis or consultatnion. My question is: Can we teach this
kind of leadership quality in Business Schools?
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