Leadership comes to the fore in post-recession UK business

Many observers believe that a key business focus post-recession will be on effective leadership. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see leadership chosen as the next research topic for AQA BUSS4 June 2011/Jan2012.

A good piece by Stephen Archer over on SMEWeb this week provides students with some through-provoking ideas on how businesses can improve the quality of their leadership. Well worth a read and follow-up discussion.

I like the suggestion that business leaders should be freed from following the mantras of tired business processes and concepts - like meetings, committees and dealing with over-complex organisational structure.

There is an interesting suggestion that leaders need to challenge the prevailing wisdom of shareholders, who are described as “not really liking risk”. There must be some truth in this assertion. How many of the investment managers in the large financial institutions would prefer maverick and unconventional leaders to the more predictable and “steady eddies” in the boardroom?

There are also some excellent points right at the end of the article about how leaders need to make change management their top priority, and about how important it is to challenge the prevailing corporate culture. Classic BUSS4 material.