We are in a study and discussion of Gary Burnison’s recently published book titled, The Twelve Absolutes of Leadership. Burnison is CEO of Korn/Ferry International, the world’s largest executive search firm.
This book is an excellent resource for individuals, teams, and organizations that truly desire personal, team, and organizational leadership improvement.
For example, very early in the book, Burnison describes six of the elements of what is called “The Absolutes of Leadership Framework.” Each element of the “leadership framework” provides an excellent discussion topic for individual, team and organizational leadership improvement. Burnison writes:
“The journey to leading starts with the next six elements of the framework: purpose, strategy, people, measure, empower, and reward. Every organization starts with a vision and purpose – the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of its existence. Then comes strategy, the ‘how’ and, more subtly, the ‘when’ of its game plan to realize that purpose. People are the truly essential element, embracing the purpose and executing the strategy. Measure determines the progress the organization is making – what is working and what is not. Empower means to delegate to people, not just as individual performers, but as teams aligned with the purpose and strategy. Reward is celebration, not just compensation.”
Leadership is enabling others – enabling leaders, teams, and individuals throughout your organization to embrace your purpose and best execute your strategies.
If you desire improvement in the leadership and results of your organization, lead and facilitate open, honest and transparent discussions focused on these mission-critical questions:
- How can we clarify and best communicate our purpose?
- How can we simplify and improve our most mission-critical strategies?
- How can we best identify, recruit, retain and reward people who will embrace and align with our purpose and culture, and best execute our strategies?
- How can we better monitor and measure that which is critically important?
- How can we more effectively empower and inspire people and teams who are aligned with our purpose and strategies?
- How can we more effectively reward and celebrate improvement and achievement of our purpose, strategies and results?
I guarantee that quality time, focus and energy spent finding and creating answers to these mission-critical questions will be one of the best, if not THE best investment you make this entire year!
