Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life. — Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 284-c.184 BC), ancient Roman playwright.
For many years we have worked with clients to help them determine what methods worked the miracle they needed to develop their people into the successful leaders required to match the needs of their organization. Particularly, with the growth associated with success, many found themselves woefully behind the curve when their leadership development did not keep pace with the needs of the organizational growth.
Accidental promotions have become so commonplace that organizations find many of their people that occupy leadership positions are inadequately developed or even worse, not capable of leading effectively. Leadership development is a major industry with a multitude of vendors providing the magic bullet answer that satisfies the quick fix solution that organizations are looking for. And many keep looking because the last one did not do the trick. The newest flavor of the month becomes the next answer to our dreams. We will get those leaders up to speed quickly so we can get back to the business of producing profit driven results for our bottom line, our share holders and ourselves.
As far back as we can all remember and even as far back as Titus Plautus cited sometime around 200BC, we continually turn to the wise sage to teach us the valued secrets of leadership that seem to elude many. We can find many of the secrets stashed away in the multitude of books sitting on the selves of the leadership sections of our favorite bookstores or proudly displayed on our own packed bookshelves. Training facilitators and key note speakers give us their versions of the most dynamic ways to the leadership holy grail and organizations spend millions to find, develop and retain the best talent to lead their organizations to success. The timeless concept of the sagacious leader lending their time to develop the leaders for today and tomorrow may continue to be the solution with the most dramatic and lasting effect.
What is different today more than it may have been back in Maccius’ era is that the sage leader today is often neglected and forgotten. A great resource sits within our midst typically toiling with many of the other technical duties associated with task accomplishment and productivity. We may have noticed and even recognized them for their gifts of leadership while we keep them strapped to the other responsibilities of their job description. Then we thank them for their service and send them off to the green pastures of retirement. Another great resource lost through the traditional views of business acumen.
Do not think we believe this valued commodity only exists in the gray haired wisdom of the aged. We have witnessed great sagacious leadership emerge from professionals several generations removed from the ranks of retirement. There are distinct characteristics that appear commonly among those sage leaders irrespective of age or expected maturity through years of experience.
We hope you can, and do recognize the sagacious leader sitting among your ranks and release them of all the ‘doing’ trappings that reduce their great leadership gifts to a secondary place of common results production that many a commoner has in their results tool box.
