The importance of leadership in successful businesses
Militaries are defined by discipline to make a campaign (as well as a military unit) successful. Military discipline is famously rigid. There is no room for questioning methodology or tactics. You’re in the Army now! Leadership is not questioned.
Businesses, in many respects, are quite like a military unit. A business has a designated leader who has earned the position through hard work and the ever-important concept of discipline. A business also has its soldiers. Those who have been carefully chosen by the person in charge to carry out orders without question.
Discipline is key to a successful business. Successful businesses are committed to delivering on time, on point results to their clients’ every time. Naturally, delivering excellence on time, every time requires a strict adherence to company culture as defined by leadership.
Strict adherence to discipline is necessary for a military unit. A military is in the business of warfare. Any deviation from strictly defined rules can result in disaster for not just the unit but also the entity that the unit serves. Disaster is never acceptable in the military.
Disaster in business is not quite so dramatic. Businesses serve clients. Inevitably, conflict between a business and a client will arise. Often times conflict with a client is met with derision because “this is how we have always done it”. Markets and technologies rapidly change. In business, the strict logic of discipline needs to be tempered with the reality of the market.
The importance of leadership in successful businesses, unlike military leadership, has got to be open to question from the soldiers – who may have excellent insight into the conflict at hand. You, as a leader, may need to have the personal discipline to take “orders” from your soldiers in order to keep your business dynamic and successful.
If you have the inkling that your business processes can be improved, contact us and we will conduct a thorough assessment of your processes in order to recommend actionable insights and plans that will transform your ideas about discipline.