What Leadership Really Means

Often we are addressed by candidates who are looking for a LEADERSHIP position. When evaluating their CVs and conducting the first phone interviews it becomes clear, that a lot of them don't have the slightest idea about what leadership really means.

Don't get us wrong. We strongly encourage people to take responsibility, not only for themselves, but also for others. But you should know what leadership really means and ask youself if you are really willing and capable of becoming a leader. Cause leadership does not mean sitting in a luxurious chair and bossing people around.

To give you a first impression about what leadership is about, we want to invite you to a little journey. A journey into a distant - and yet so near - country. A country 'full of sound and fury' as Shakespeare would say and where only imagination and the laws of nature draw the borders. A country - and that may be most important to you, although we don't hope so - full of unimaginable profits and that we call........DREAMLAND.

IMAGINE!

THE POWER OF DREAMS

DREAMS, or VISIONS as you might call them, have shaped our world since the beginning of humankind. And they continue to change the world, every little part of it. RIGHT NOW!

The tremendous forces that we see acting right now and that we use to call Globalization or Global Change, are in fact nothing else than the result of millions upon millions of people all over the world realizing their dreams. Bright young scientists and engineers together with tough business(wo)men in China, India and Eastern Europe have started to realize THEIR dreams, thereby reshaping the face of the world and knocking HARD at the doors of Good Old Europe.

A WHOLE CONTINENT - REBUILT ON DREAMS

After Word War II Germany laid in ruins. All mayor cities had been destroyed, millions of people have died or were imprisoned. But after the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949, the people in West Germany HAD a DREAM.

They dreamt of rebuilding their houses, their production plants, and becoming a truly democratic state, a trusted partner for his allies and integrated in a peaceful Europe. What followed, was something we call the 'Economic Miracle', which, in fact, was nothing else than millions upon millions of people realising their DREAMS with PASSION and DETERMINATION.

In Eastern Europe there are some of the toughest businessmen we ever met. When they started out as young men in the early 1990's, when everyone in Eastern Europe was driving these ugly little Lada's or the like, they dreamt of driving one of those gorgeous 7series BMWs - fully equipped and with those marvellous 12cyl engines of course.

By pursuing their dreams they built up huge corporations, changed the appearance of their countries - take a look at Eastern Europe now and compare it with 20 years ago.........WOW! - and here and then kicking some of their much bigger, much longer established multinational competitors out of business.

YES, DREAMS can be a very mighty force. In fact, we believe that dreams are the most powerful, and most underestimated, force in business at all.

THE NATURE OF DREAMLAND

Don't get us wrong. The heroes and heroines of DREAMLAND are anything else but softies. In fact, they are tough as nails. And they HAVE to be. Because if you want to change something - and of course you want to change something: at least you want more market share, more profits - you, by definition, are going to piss a lot of people of. Namely all of those who have made themselves comfortable in the current situation and who don't want anything to change. All those who have the market share and profits you want to take away from them. So you HAVE to fight: the forces of stagnation, the forces of stupidity, the oldthinkers, the competition, and so on ....

Creating WIN-WIN situations is fine, and you should do it whenever possible. But there are circumstances where you can only become a winner at the expense of others becoming losers. According to the principle of creative destruction the OLD has to be destroyed to make room for something NEW. Sometimes you cannot avoid wiping your competitors out of the market, reorganize whole branches or even change whole nations and economies.

Did PC manufacturers care about typewriter manufacturers? Did Nicolaus Otto and Rudolf Diesel care about steam engine manufacturers? Did the Japanese consumer electronic manufacturers care about their European and American competitors? Do Chinese business(wo)men and politicians care about the European comfort zone?

In fact, realizing your dreams can become a nightmare for others. You hardly will be everybodys darling.

DREAMLAND IS NOT ALICE IN WONDERLAND!

LEADER OR TALENT

Let's start with a small, simple fact: According to a study of the renowned Gallup Institute more than 80% of employees in Germany are either working only to rule or are literally frustrated.

One of 83%

Now, what does that mean?

It basically means there are way too much people in leadership positions who DON'T HAVE any VISION, any DREAMS, any PASSION.

But

if you DON'T HAVE any DREAMS if you DON'T HAVE any VISION if you DON'T HAVE the DETERMINATION to CHANGE something

then you will never be able to attract and motivate people to follow you. Which means:

YOU ARE NO LEADER!

You may be good in business administration, especially if you are a MASTER of Business ADMINISTRATION. But administration is no longer enough. Not if you are competing with visionaries from all over the world who DO HAVE DREAMS and VISIONS and the PASSION and DETERMINATION to CHANGE this world to THEIR advantage.

Nothing lost if you have no leadership qualities. You may be a good accountant, a good salesman, a good engineer or a good lawyer. And there's nothing wrong with being a professional. Companies need both leaders AND professionals. And a lot of professionals earn more than most leaders do. Josef Ackermann, former CEO of Deutsche Bank, once claimed to rank only 14th in earnings at his company, with a lot of investment managers earning more than he does. More than 11.9 Mio. EUR - WOW! Seems that it does pay off to be a good professional.

Usually, leading and professionalism require different sets of skills. Thus, as a rule of thumb, good leaders are often bad professionals, and good professionals are often bad leaders. Nothing wrong with that. The problem arises, when bright professionals who have no leadership skills get into leadership positions, or when bright leadership talents get stuck in professional work. Then the result is mediocrity and frustration.

So it is necessary to make sure if you are a good leader or a good professional, so that you can make full use of your talent. This is very difficult, and may change over time, because your personality and your experiences changes over time, too. That's one main reason why we strongly advise our clients to make use of good consulting partners, if they don't have the necessary skills and experience for assessing applicants.

When assessing potential applicants we strongly advice not to rely solely on performing standardized personality tests or looking for worn heels. Because having a pre-developed plan and standardized tests for assessing applicants is a sure way to recruit the mediocre Masters of Averages who have already ruined so many companies.

OUR DREAM

IMAGINE: How would it be if the frustration number would not be 83%, but, let's say, 8.3%? Only a little dot. But what impact would this little dot have on Germany's economy, on unemployment, on employee satisfaction, on productivity, on progress, on overall standard of living, and, of course.........ON PROFITS?

Every company should, MUST, know WHY they are there. We at Linnamägi Executive Search have a little dream. Namely

bringing that damned 83%-frustration figure down

By bringing REAL LEADERS into leadership positions, by offering TALENTS the opportunity to grow and realize their DREAMS, and by helping companies to get the LEADERS and PROFESSIONALS they need to realize their DREAMS.

We hope you enjoyed our little journey into Dreamland. And we hope that we could inspire you to look beyond Nielsen numbers, accounting numbers or standardized personality tests.

In fact, we hope you got so inspired that you start asking yourself what YOUR DREAMS are, what YOUR VISION is, HOW you can get there and that you START ACTING.

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