Quality Leadership

Saturday’s Wall St Journal (3/23/19) has an article that clearly supports the message I’ve been trying to live and do my best to teach for seventy plus years. It is about quality Leadership as the key to success of the huge majority of people organizations. I am flabbergasted that this is the hot lesson of the day and forces me to ask “what will it take for those in positions of power and influence over others to learn and apply so obvious a truth?” It’s only been around since the idea of group living and the better chance of survival takes place. Without question quality leadership has been and is the key to human creativity, productivity and a better life for the majority. Nothing new under the sun; It’s only a matter of discovery and that through experience personally experienced as often as possible.

Look into any operation that depends on people and if it is a successful operation there is an excellent leaders right in the mix of what is taking place. These leaders are front and center or behind their people, but in most situations a part of the action. They are role models through behavior. Words may be part of their value to others, but it’s the actions they take that counts the most. But this is just a beginning. 

This quality leader is not sitting in an office far removed from the playing field, but is a participating member without always being in charge.  This point needs to be clearly understood. The leader I am writing of empowers those they work with to take leadership if and when the event calls out to them to take over. Situations count more than any fixed hierarchy or construct.

This is impossible to attain without trust, respect and dialogue being established between the leader and their key people. These are essential ingredients leaders bring to each of their meaningful relationships. And as challenging as it may be, none of this begins with subordinates, but is the leader being their authentic self.  How received by those that are led depends on each and their own personal history dealing with power issues. Whether growth (change) takes place between them has much to do with this. Nothing is assured.

The beauty of this is that most people seek better than their past. They want to be trusted, respected and to experience dialogue that confirms their existence as a self. Quality leadership may not guarantee this happening, but there is no better way to reach another. Truth, respect and openness have remarkable curative powers.

Haikus:

What is reported————It reads as if news today————–Who cares; let it be.

Leadership required——–Someone must, without which way?.——–A leader at helm

Trust and respect————–what brings and holds together————Not easy to do

Author: Sy Ogulnick

Sy Ogulnick received a BA from UCLA, Teacher’s Credential from Los Angeles Board of Education and completed phase I (Master’s portion) in a Doctor of Behavioral Science program at California Coast University. Sy leased and operated a summer day camp in LA. He and his wife then purchased virgin wilderness land in Northern CA, where they built and operated a coed summer camp. They moved to Las Vegas, NV, and purchased, built and operated a community children’s program for families staying in a major resort casino in Las Vegas. They have created programs for children nationwide that employed many people and in the process developed successful training programs for personnel. This led Sy to lecture on how to train staff and the creating of community within the workplace. Sy was then invited to speak at professional conferences on how best to hire and train employees, which led to his becoming a consultant in the art of improving relationships in a work environment and eventually to his epiphany that “Leaders are the primary problem and the answer to the personnel issues that arise in the workplace.” Sy has written numerous papers on the subject of interpersonal relationships, leadership and power. He has lectured throughout the United States, has been interviewed by the media and has appeared on many radio and TV talk shows

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