The executives of an enterprise must be strong in their convictions to lead an organization forward. But taken to the extreme, strength in convictions will stifle constructive dissent in an organization and, in turn, creative thinking as well. When the direction of an organization is determined solely by the individual at the top, the seeds of disaster have been planted. I have seen this many times in the work I have done for troubled companies over the years.
Though there are some shining excep-tions, 37 years of experience with more than 400 different operations and organizations leads me to paint a grim picture of the quality of leadership in industry as a whole. While the quality, dedication, motivation and focus of the lower level supervisors and production workers is strong, they continue to fight an uphill battle due to the lack of leadership at and near the top of the organization.