Lessons in IT Transformation: Technology Expert to Business Leader

You Need a Culture of Leadership to Ensure Long-term Viability

Long-term success is very difficult to sustain. It certainly cannot be accomplished based on the talents and acumen of a single individual, regardless of how good she is. Real sustainable success requires the development of a culture of leadership.

It is my responsibility to develop a leadership culture. There is a line in a song by Augie Nieto that says, “It's not the breaths you take, its how you breathe.” Clearly, getting results is always important in business. But the process as to how you get the results is often more important than the results themselves. I have worked in many places where “the ends justified the means.” I have seen leaders “take the hill” only to wipe out all the villagers in the process. It is imperative that you set an example for your people and model for them how to play the game. They should be able to watch you and learn how to handle the challenges they will encounter on the road to success.

In the 1990s, many Christian teenagers wore T-shirts and bracelets sporting the acronym WWJD. This stood for “What would Jesus do?” Now I am not advocating any particular religious belief. I am not suggesting that leaders are as important as or can aspire to be as perfect as Jesus, and I am not trying to be sacrilegious. However, I do think that there's a point to be learned from this approach. Your people watch you. Hopefully, you model the behaviors you want them to emulate. When they are faced ...