Today I decided to join the world of the Blogger! Yes, this much self-impressed opinion of mine will now be let loose on the world.
Those close to me will suggest that the term 'now' should be changed to past tense but too bad!
With the AFL season about to start I wanted to talk about how I feel Eddie Maguire (President of my beloved Collingwood Football club) may have made one of the most common yet fundamental mistakes of Leadership. Decision based on self interest due to emotional feelings towards an individual.
In 2009 Eddie and the Collingwood Board decided to put in place what we in the corporate world would call a succession plan with the coach by appointing the Favourite son Nathan Buckley as the heir apparent in 2012 to current coach Mick Malthouse.
Buckley a superstar of a player, extremely professional and disciplined individual but unproven coach was being pursued by other clubs and Eddie just couldn't bare the thought of his beloved "Bucks" at another club.
The plan was for him to be assistant coach for 2 years under Malthouse and have him take over with Mick on a yet to be defined (superannuation) role for 3 years helping Bucks out.
Now at the time it caused a stir but most Collingwood people were not too upset as Mick had been at the club for 10 years and hadn't delivered the ultimate prize to the club.
2010 turned out to the be year of the Pie however and now Mick has a flag under his belt and another one on the radar for 2011. You can just imagine the distraction this may become for the club and the men in charge.
Now why am I writing about this when most of the Melbourne Media already has?
Basically every time I have seen a leader make a decision based on personal preference or emotional attachment, it has come back to bite the individual. I have a few bite marks myself to be honest and I can't understand how a club, with a board and such a large stakeholder base can allow this to happen.
The comment that Leadership is a lonely place is true not because there aren't many Leaders but because to be a true leader you must be prepared to turn your back on what your emotional "self" desires, and do the right thing.
The cause for which you are leading needs to be stronger then the return for self interest. Another words if you would compromise the interest of those you lead for the benefit of self interest no matter how short sighted, it is best you reassess how you are approaching your role as a Leader as it will most likely have negative consequences.
Fundamentally Leadership is built around two core capabilities: Firstly, a leader must be able to get the people they are leading to buy into a vision, direction, goal or philosophy. They don't need to be the author but must be able to help people see it and set the direction to it.
The second core function of a Leader is to keep the people motivated to follow the vision, direction, goal or philosophy. Management is the tools or processes used to get there. (Distinctly different and another blog).
When self interest becomes apparent and the leader is compromised it makes keeping the followers motivated much more difficult and the role of the Leader becomes exponentially harder until it is potentially untenable and perfectly good directions are questioned.
So let's hope Eddie knows something that we all don't about the Mick and Bucks situation as once the Pies lose a few games this year, he will need to prove that he hasn't compromised our ability to go back to back.
That's my rant for today
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