Leadership Fundamentals Don't Change

Ron Ashkenas and Brook Manville, coauthors of the Harvard Business Review Leader’s Handbook, are often asked for the newest guidance for leaders. Clearly the “leadership industry” is booming, with hundreds of books written about the subject every year, new assessment tools based on neuroscience, computer aided algorithms for decision-making, virtual reality simulations, and online courses with university affiliations. 

But is there really an essentially new way to think about leadership? Writing in The Harvard Business Review, Ashkenas and Manville remind us that although there are a lot of new and interesting ideas, some of which may prove helpful, outstanding leadership has not really changed over the years. (Tweet it!) “It is still about mobilizing people in an organization around common goals to achieve impact, at scale.”

According to the authors, leaders with the greatest impact almost always deploy these six classic, fundamental practices:

1. uniting people around an exciting, aspirational vision;
2. building a strategy for achieving the vision;
3. attracting and developing the best possible talent;
4. relentlessly focusing on results in the context of the strategy;
5. creating ongoing innovation to help reinvent the vision and strategy; and
6. “leading yourself” by knowing and growing yourself so you can most effectively lead others and carry out these practices.

“Sometimes the starting point is different, or one of the six areas requires more heavy lifting than another,” say Ashkenas and Manville, “…but the same handful of practices are always present.”

What do you think about these leadership fundamentals? Do you think that one is most important? Are there any missing? To join the conversation, click "comments" above.
 
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