managers

Micromanagement and lack of trust are cries often heard in today's business arenas. In this age of accountability, downsizing, larger spans of control, complex global competition, and job uncertainty, all managers are faced with getting results through people. Managers preach empowerment and yet, if the results are not right, who gets the blame?

Answers are often before our very eyes or in front of our noses - particularly if we read the American Heritage Dictionary!

Explore with me how some of the multitude of definitions for the word "leader" actually serve as a performance standard for leadership.

The stock market gyrates with unpredictable and heartburning results. Icons of solid companies become straw figures before balance sheets. Children are abducted from their front yards and networks of terrorists spiral throughout the world. Religious institutions cast shadows of duplicity while El Nino brings strange fish to the California coasts and out-of-control fires head toward ancient Sequoias.