AUGUST 25

Where along the way did things go wrong?

RETRACING OUR STEPS

Somewhere along the way, we got way off track. We began to see management as the ability to crunch numbers and facilitate meetings and compose flow charts. Businesses began to expend billions of dollars each year on executive training, much of it heavily focused on leadership skills.

Ironically, evidence has emerged that these types of “quantitative” executive training expenditures yield very low rates of return on investment for their corporate sponsors. Some experts estimate that the return on investment from these costs may be as low as 10 percent.

In our minds—and those of many others—leadership is the natural outcome of a sincere relationship of mutual respect between employees and supervisors. A relationship that includes regular, sincere recognition.