The hardworking idiots can destroy any company. They value their career most and they do everything possible to reach the goal. They usually do not understand the goal, but they generate a lot of unimportant tasks and documents to show their importance. The leader has to have a good sense to recognize the hardworking idiots in the organization as they can completely destroy it.

The hardworking idiots are well defined by the German Erich von Manstein who introduced four kinds of his officers. It is not that important, what four major groups, but he was definitely right with the group of hardworking idiots.
The leader has to be sensitive and the leader has to identify all the hardworking idiots around him or her. The hardworking idiots look like the best followers of the leader’s vision, but they do not manage its implementation, they produce a lot of pointless tasks for the rest of the group to demonstrate their buy-in.

The leader has to observe the whole group of the employees as the managers love the hardworking idiots as they look as the top performers in the whole organization. The rest of employees do not share the same opinion with the managers. They see the reality and they see no connection with the vision of the leader. The hardworking idiots can destroy the organization as the other employees have to fulfill their wishes, which are not connected with the vision and the strategy. They are produced and given to demonstrate the willingness to success.

The leader has to properly evaluate the effort and the real results against the vision and the strategy. When there is a mismatch, the leader has to focus on details and he has to ask clever questions to identify the real problem – the hardworking idiot in the team.

It is quite common, the change in the organization needs a burning platform, but the members of the organization (or the employees and the managers) feel comfortable with the status quo and their wish to introduce changes to the company is minimal. They can be depressed from the last unsuccessful changes or the changes are announced too frequently, that they just ignore any new “Our Bright Future Initiative”.

The leaders cannot find the real reason to energize the organization as they accept the need for the change and the changes are done as nice presentations with no real impact on the performance and operation of the company.

The true leaders are excellent in building the burning platforms. Many organizations accept just the external burning platforms, when they have to fight for their own future as the competitors are too good and the products and services are not competitive enough.

The authentic leaders do not speak about the burning platforms, they develop them as the organization follows their ideas and brings improvement to their customers and employees.

The leader with no change in mind is not a true leader. The change and vision are the main value added by the leaders.

The large organizations organize for the management staff the leadership conferences. They are not much about the real leadership, but they inspire and exchange ideas and they provide the space for the leader of the organization to share the business strategy for the next few months or years.

The leadership conference is about the right timing and the right agenda of the conference. The leadership conference should be at least organized for one full day and it should start in the evening a day before. It is a huge expense to pay a night in the hotel, but the managers are just the people and they need time to make the networking.

The networking is the essential component of the leadership development. The managers need to build their personal networks as the communication in the organization is smoother and the manager can consult their own issues with the fellow managers in the business.

The leadership conference sets the update of the leader’s vision and it helps to get a buy-in from the managers as they will have to implement the vision into the products, processes and procedures. The leader has no chance to monitor the progress in all details and the managers have to feel confident in the right implementation.

One company leadership conference can save a lot of time as the managers have to chance to adjust their own understanding with the leader as they can ask questions and they are forced to discuss.

The current financial crisis showed, the current world is missing the true leaders. The leaders, who want to build successful organizations and successful employees serving to the rest of the world. Many leaders did not follow the best ways to keep the organizations stable and healthy. They followed their bonuses and they did not care about the future. It is not about the leadership, it is about a short term interest.

Human Resources and the top management will have to redefine the role of the leader in the organization again. As the current leader lost their credibility. And without the credibility and the trust, there is no leader for the organization. It is simple. Once the leader loses the trust, it is a mission impossible to get the trust again. The employees will hear, but they will not follow and act. The leadership is about motivating employees to follow the simple vision, once the leader loses the trust, the nicest vision does not get any credit.

Without the leaders, the western world cannot survive. That is the reason, Mr. Obama got so many votes. He had a vision, people could follow. He is not progressing right now and he can lose the trust. Without a trust, he will not not be a successful president. He will be just a president.

The organizations have to speed up their leadership development programs to find the new and credible leaders as they can continue in their growth and bringing innovations. Otherwise, the western world is lost.