“Leadership is a foul-weather job. The most important task of an organization is to anticipate crisis. To wait until the crisis hits is already abdication.”
This quote from “Inside Drucker’s Brain,” Jeffrey Krames’ text on management icon Peter Drucker, underscores the role great business leaders must take regardless of the economic climate. True leaders anticipate the future and take appropriate action.
A recent discussion I had with a top executive at a large financial firm brought this concept into focus. The manager believed that without a doubt, installing a hiring assessment test would help the company hire better quality salespeople but he was worried that if he introduced the test, his performance would be scrutinized and it would cost him his job.
What I’ve seen in the banking world is that when things are going good, the company concentrates on capturing every last cent instead of innovating and looking to the future. Companies that cease to innovate will also cease to grow and prosper.