Leaders, Coordinators and Executors

I've been thinking about leadership and what it means. Here are some of my thoughts:

Leaders are at the head of a series of roles that must be filled for an organization to succeed. Leaders outline where the ship is to sail and chart the course. They dwell at the intersection of vision and strategy, outlining the vision and working out, in broad terms, how it might be achieved.

Supporting the leaders is a group akin to what most know as senior management. They keep the vision in view, while working predominantly to develop strategic thrusts that further the vision. At the same time, they remain aware of how strategies can be made operational. They connect the vision to the tangible operations that collectively work towards its achievement. These are the coordinators.

Supporting this group, in turn, is a group that handles detailed operations while keeping the relevant part of the strategy in sight. These are the executors.

Certainly, one could generate a continuum of roles working with vision, strategy and operations. Allow me to throw some (purely indicative) numbers together to an indication of what these roles are like:

Role \ Type of Work	Visionary	Strategic	Operational
Leader	50%	45%	5%
Coordinator	15%	65%	20%
Executor	0%	20%	80%

Again, the numbers are purely indicative. Note that this is my personal take on leadership and may differ from treatments of leadership elsewhere. (So as usual, caveat emptor.)

I feel that the correct progression of activity is to start with a vision of where to go (or at least a direction), then develop strategic thrusts that move one towards that vision (or in that direction), and finally to develop operational initiatives in line with the various strategic thrusts. (i.e.: It doesn't make sense to decide what to do and then figure out where that will take you.)

It is amusing how one comes to the question of leadership from so many different angles. In fact, one perspective of leadership is that it is the art of living, a fair and interesting perspective that comes from the point of view of self-improvement and personal fulfillment. One comes to the question of leadership when a cloud of operational tactics and strategic thrusts need a guiding principle.

I sorely regret not paying attention to leadership in the past, thinking it a subject for insufferable blowhards. Paying attention now, perhaps, is not too late.