There is one vital entity that continuously dominates all spheres of life. That entity is energy. So vital to life, so vital to the dynamics of life that we can say with certainty that without energy there would be no life. For life to continually exist in a competitive world, it needs mobility. Life is a force that compels mobility and movement, which requires power that derives from energy. It is the energy that essentially produces the movement.
Groups and organisations are no different from living organisms and they too need to be fed a steady flow of energy to stay alive and to keep moving forward. Organisations and groups depend on leadership to create and supply the energy they need in abundance. The deficiency of this “energy” results in stagnation and the absence of this energy can prove to be fatal. To avoid this predicament, organisations vest a huge amount of time and resources in their attempt to recruit the right leadership. But somehow, the new leadership often fails to achieve the desired results; they fail to create and harness the energy.
The true qualities of successful leadership lie in their ability to identify the potential energy sources at their disposal and be able to harness that energy skilfully. This energy can be described as a new idea or a new product. Energy is anything that is vital to any particular organisation, which serves as a catalyst for the organisation’s continued growth. Just like blood is vital for the body and a regular healthy diet is necessary for the growth of new blood cells. New ideas or new products are pivotal for an organisation or a company to ensure that the organisation is working to its full potential. However, the important point is to know which ideas and which products to choose. Innovation and innovative ideas would only improve the performance of the organisation when the leadership is skilled enough not to allow wastage of energy and ensures that the right ideas are implemented at the right time.
The leadership cannot be complacent; they must constantly create and feed new energy into the organisation. Hence, they cannot be expected to be living in present but rather in the future, ahead of the remaining group. The leadership’s task is to guide and prepare the group or organisation strategically for the future, using transformational skills. Leaderships create movement, and lead to a logical course of action. Therefore the leadership has to be multi-talented and chosen for their exceptional qualities such as integrity, competency, communication skills, courage, ability to motivate people and ethical modus operandi etc.
Leadership is a perilous task. It is an ability to focus people and resources in such a manner so that both are utilised to their fullest potential in the most powerful and cost-effective way. Poor leadership leads to inefficiency and low morale, and progress stagnates. In other words, poor leadership fails to create, harness and utilise the energy. The organisation’s very existence is dependent on leadership. Hence, it is essential that the leadership must always endeavour to supply more and more energy and harness this energy.
