Leadership of Today

Christopher J. Dorobek's "Incoming" column focused on good leadership. I once was as misguided as Dorobek, but no more. I hope it's not too late to affect his thinking-and yours as well. Dorobek notes that a recent search for books about leadership yielded almost 350,000 hits, and he mentions some of the classic works on leadership. I've read most of these, and I aspired to be-and be seen as-a leader: agile and innovative, enabling people to think independently. Finally, Dorobek notes that "... too often we confuse leadership with management." Other than this sentence, management, manager and managing are mentioned only twice in his column. That doesn't strike me as fair or balanced. As government programs and agencies today have become more complex, the ability to make them work has diminished. As we review the government landscape today, it is littered with failures such as FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina and the Food and Drug Administration's inability to stop dangerous foods from reaching dining tables. Are these failures of leadership? There might be an element of that, but more likely they are failures of management; they are failures to execute. There are many reasons for this. While the federal acquisition work force remains largely flat-increasing about 3 percent since fiscal year 1999-federal contracting dollars have more than doubled. Because of past administrations' efforts to downsize the federal work force, the government has come to rely on the private sector. Never before have we so badly needed new and big ideas on government management, and never before have we needed strong managers and leaders in government. But, as Professor Donald Kehl at the University of Maryland has said, "Never before have we been so bereft on both." Our need today is not for more agile, innovative, enabling leaders. It's not for transformative leadership. It's not for rock stars or heavy hitters or big thinkers. The future is about managing risks and expenses. It's about delivering and executing. It's about solid management, administration and execution. For at least the last 30-plus years, we've been led and over- and under-managed. What we need today is more and better management. We need articles like "Trite but True: It all comes down to management." Editor's note: Alan P. Balutis (abalutis@cisco.com) is the director and distinguished fellow for Cisco Business Solutions Group. Balutis responded in greater depth to Dorobek's column; that response will appear in the October 2009 issue of SIGNAL Magazine.