BUSINESS AND LIFE: Effective Leadership & LIAT’s Summer Meltdown II

Dr. Valda Henry
Dr. Valda Henry

This week, we continue our focus on Effective Leadership and LIAT’s Summer Meltdown.  The remaining four principles of Peter Drucker’s (2004) effective leadership we will be addressing this week are:

1.    Take responsibility for communicating
2.    Focus on opportunities, not problems
3.    Run productive meetings
4.    Think and say “We”, and not “I.”

Let’s analyse the LIAT’s situation in context of the remaining four principles:

1. Take Responsibility for Communicating – Communication is the oil that keeps the engine of the organisation working.  Effective executives ensure that their vision and action plans are well communicated and understood by all in their organisation and key stakeholders.  Communication is clearly one of LIAT weak areas.  The Chairman has even conceded that LIAT should have communicated much earlier to the public of what LIAT was attempting to do. I daresay, not only the pubic but also very importantly the employees.  Workers in Dominica and Barbados staged “walk-outs” as they did not have sufficient information to relay to customers.  On a more regular basis, LIAT is also poor in communicating for they know in advance that a flight will be delayed and say nothing to the travelling public.  They sometimes make an announcement, two hours after a flight is delayed and often after customers have made several trips to the agents to ask for information.

2. Focus on Opportunities, not Problems – Problems have to be taken care of, however problem solving does not produce results.  It prevents damage.  Exploiting opportunities produces results.  In this current “Summer Meltdown”, LIAT focus has to be on the opportunities, the silver lining amidst the storm.  What are the opportunities for LIAT?  I see the opportunity to build a better relationship with employees and public by communicating better, soliciting ideas and solutions, which engenders buy-in and ownership.  I see opportunities for building a more efficient and effective organisation by not just identifying what went wrong and what could have been done differently, but importantly by embracing and implementing change successfully.  I see this as an opportunity for a rebirth and renewal by making the needed changes from the board to the executive to the staff and operations.  It is an opportune time for an effective overhaul of operations.
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3. Make Meetings Productive – Executives are in meetings regularly and sometimes, if not often, these meetings lack purpose or deviate from their stated purpose.  Effective executives must make meetings productive; they must ensure meetings are work sessions and not “talk shops.”  The key to running an effective meeting is to decide in advance the type of meeting it will be for different meetings require different forms of preparation and results.  Making a meeting productive requires self-discipline to keep to the agenda and to terminate the meeting once the purpose has been achieved and it also requires good follow-up.  Good follow up identifies the tasks to be done; the people responsible for accomplishing the tasks; the deadline and reporting on the completed tasks.  As I indicated last week, I am not privy to the inside working of LIAT, so I cannot speak to the quality of its meetings and follow through.  However, from the outcomes of some of its decision, one can surmise that meetings and follow-ups are not always effective.  Mr. Nassief, in his second letter to the LIAT’s Chairman wrote, “And despite your promise to reply to my letter ‘in some detail in the very near future,’ to date you have addressed none of the issues raised.”  This speaks to lack of follow-up and failure to communicate, vital practices for effective leadership.

4. Think and Say “We” – Don’t think or say “I.”  Think and say “We.”  Effective executives know that they have ultimate responsibility, which can be neither shared nor delegated, but they have authority only because they have the trust of the organisation.  They think of the needs and the opportunities of the organisation before they think of their own needs and opportunities.  Drucker argues that this principle “may sound easy; it isn’t, but it needs to be strictly observed.”  LIAT board and management need to think about LIAT and not themselves. They need to think and do what is in LIAT’s best interest.  Do they have the trust of the staff?  Do they have the trust of the shareholders? Do they have the trust of the travelling public? Do they have the trust of the stakeholders?  If the answer is “no,” then they need to do the honourable thing and as Mr. Nassief opined, “show true greatness and resign.”  If the answer is “yes,” they need to think and put first the travelling public, staff, shareholders and stakeholders, and take and implement decisions that will meet the needs of the customers and fulfill LIAT’s mandate.

Drucker throws in what he calls a bonus and because of its importance, he has elevated it to a rule: “Listen First, Speak Last.”  Effective executives listen to their constituents and they act.  They, in the words of St. Francis of Assisi need to, “Preach… and if necessary, use words.”

Effectiveness is a discipline and like every discipline, effectiveness can be learned and must be earned (Drucker, 2004).

Until we meet again, May God Continue to Keep Us in the Palm of His Hands.

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3 Comments

  1. September 10, 2013
  2. mahaut in de uk
    September 10, 2013

    always clear and organise with her piece. Continue to educate us doctor. I dont live in Dominica but i do admire and read your materials because its always refeshing, balance and fair.

    your love for the lord will give you wisdom and protecting.

  3. ummmm
    September 9, 2013

    Great piece

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