New ... "Leadership?

During periods of crisis can assess many factors that change according to the nature of the crisis conditions, and become that make the management decisions of the present and the future.

One such factor is the behavior of the managers of the companies, which are now under pressure and have to make decisions that will determine the future of their employees, their organizations and society in general.

The new global survey by McKinsey & Company, called "Leadership Through the Crisis and After" (The leadership during and after the crisis), investigated the way in which individual leaders are leading and the changes that their styles of leadership have suffered during the economic crisis.

The study found that executives have actually changed their leadership styles markedly during the past year, with the exception of his view of the aspects that can help companies in the long term, and also revealed that many of the styles leadership is most needed at present and in the future, like having inspirational leaders and have a clear direction for the company, are used by women than by men.

Leaders without much leadership

The global survey emphasizes the positive in that most participants have said does not have cut into programs for recruitment, retention and development of women, but also says it is opaque by the fact that only one third of respondents consider gender diversity as one of the ten priorities of their company while relatively few are taking specific actions to promote it.

Moreover, there are some very encouraging figures in the leadership of managers: only 48% of the executives surveyed believe they should inspire and only 46% considered it their responsibility to provide leadership during the crisis. Moreover, these figures drop to 45% and 39%, respectively, if the questions are framed in the way of managing in times of post-crisis.

John Baldoni, leadership consultant and author of several books, published an article on the survey at Harvard Business Publishing, and believes that "A majority of managers just do not understand what it means to be a leader."

And is that only 30% of managers felt they needed to motivate your employees during the crisis, and 23% felt it during the post-crisis; only 23% expressed the need for accountability during the crisis, and 18% during the post- crisis, and only 33% of them claimed to believe that innovation is needed now, while 46% said they believed it was necessary during the post-crisis.

In the words of Balconi, "If a majority of managers do not feel the inspiration and direction are needed to manage corporate performance, and that the motivation and accountability are essential, then our companies are in a much worse than the imagined .

Leadership is more to do to fulfill the tasks

The author of the article explains that leadership can not be alone in getting things done, because that would be a shortsighted not to take the company very far away, but this ability to execute must be accompanied by provision for reach the company to achieve the objectives and have the foundation for growth.

Finally, it is important to clarify that a leader should inspire and be admired, and that inspiration is not about to give the most sophisticated speeches, but set an example and explains Balconi "The word inspiration can be confusing and even overwhelming, for most managers because they can feel that need to be speakers as Winston Churchill or leaders like Colin Powell. No, the inspiration is rooted in the personal example. Managers can inspire employees to put in a position to succeed .... "