The psychology of the leader

Abstract

In these tempestuous times, it should hardly be necessary to underline the need for leaders to accept responsibility and act decisively. However, it is disappointing to conclude that this is not happening. Many important decisions are not being taken with the level of resoluteness that is necessary. Quite the contrary, all too often, key decisions are being postponed and many political and business leaders seem reluctant to cut to the heart of difficult problems. The procrastination of their leaders is one of the most frustrating aspects reported by employees at all levels and in all sectors. Most readers will be familiar with situations where important matters have been ‘put on the back burner’ , so that no change was implemented and no progress booked. Moreover, it seems to be a problem that has gotten worse in recent years, so that we now find ourselves in a situation that can be compared to an onion, with successive layers of delayed decisions gradually being superimposed, one on top of the other. This obviously makes it even more difficult to take the corrective action that is now required. In fact, because different layers of imperfect decision-making emerge, the level of complexity within the organisation will increase dramatically. Therefore, the onioneffect is in danger of paralysing the entire decision-making apparatus from top to bottom (see Figure 2).