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The term leadership was popularized and utilized so much that it became a buzzword. The result of the term being used so broadly is that it can lose its importance.
Every great organization (and even the mediocre ones) talk about developing leaders. But in times of uncertainty, when the customer counts are down and the future looks less certain, the work of building leaders moves to the backburner.
The saying goes something like this: "We don't have time for leadership work right now. We need to focus on the real issues."
Here are some of those "real" priorities:
- Enhance our brand positioning or perception
- Increase operational excellence
- Drive customer loyalty
- Improve employee retention
Here's the uncomfortable truth:
If you're focusing on any of those elements without addressing leadership first, you're guaranteeing failure.
Leadership has become what I call a "prosperity pursuit"—something organizations invest in when times are good. It's treated as a nice-to-have rather than the foundation that determines success in every other area.
This is backward thinking. Leadership isn't the cherry on top—it's the bowl that holds everything else.
Consider Captain David Marquet and the USS Santa Fe. When Marquet took command, the submarine ranked as the worst-performing vessel in the fleet.
One year later, that same submarine with the exact same crew became the highest-rated in naval history.
What changed? Not the equipment. Not the crew. Not the mission.
Only the leadership approach changed.
Marquet transformed a command-and-control environment into a "leader-leader" model that pushed authority to where the information lived. The results were extraordinary—and they happened during high-pressure situations, not during peaceful times.
Here's the paradox:
Organizations invest in leadership when they can afford to, but they need the results leadership provides when they feel they can least afford it.
When uncertainty rules,
- strategy without leadership is just wishful thinking
- culture without leadership is just empty platitudes
- operations without leadership lacks a commitment to excellence
- talent without leadership will leave
If you're facing uncertainty right now, here's my counterintuitive advice: Find time to develop leaders. Leadership isn't what you work on when everything else is going well. It's what determines whether anything else goes well at all.
During certainty, mediocre leadership can hide. During uncertainty, leadership quality becomes the differentiator between organizations that merely survive and those that emerge stronger.
Are you treating leadership as a "good times" luxury, or as the foundation that will determine your success through uncertainty?
Find some strategic people practices to double down on this week, even though times are challenging.
