Current economic and financial problems have been caused by systematic failure of macho, short-term leadership
What we are encountering in the global economy isn’t just a credit crisis and looming melt-down of various financial institutions. It goes deeper than that. We are daily faced by clear proof that, in the past few years, many corporate leaders tried to increase short-term profits by engaging in amazingly risky activities and passing off the risk as immaterial. And that at the root of it all has been the failure of the type of “market-driven,” macho leadership that has been in vogue for the past decade or so.
I’ll let the facts speak for themselves.
The leaders of a good number of banks and once highly-rated finance houses made the most obvious mistake of every amateur: they invested heavily in things they didn’t understand — because doing so was the current vogue, everyone else was doing it, and other people told them to. Yet these people are not supposed to be amateurs. They’re paid big bucks because they claim to be professionals.
They showed no concern for the long-term stability and security of their businesses. They revealed no signs of independent thought; nor any willingness to question fashionable assumptions. They acted as leaders only in the sense that they lead the charge towards inevitable doom.
Instead of managing and controlling risk, leaders like this multiplied it through the use of leveraged approaches. Investors aim to make returns by lending their capital to businesses who can use it to good effect. Gamblers “invest” money in wagers on unknowable future events. Only fools gamble with borrowed money and react to losses by doubling up their bets. In some cases, the bets these “leaders” allowed their organizations to make represented more than 50 or 60 times their actual capital.
Leaders are required to be good stewards of organizational resources; not use them to play in high-stakes gambling games where one failure risks the whole business.
译文:
领导者之能力匮乏
男性化短期领导模式的系统性失败，导致当今经济和财政问题
在全球经济中，我们要面对的不仅仅是信用危机，也不仅仅是各类财政机构的垮台。事情远远没有这么简单。在我们的日常生活中就可以找到有力的证据。在过去这些年里，许多企业领袖试图通过参加一些高风险活动，来提高短期利益，而且还假装说这些投资并不重要。归根到底，这就是男性化领导、市场推动的经营模式的失败。这一经营模式在过去十几年中一直都处在非常流行的状态。
我会让事实自己站出来说话。
许多银行和高利率的财政机构的领导者在他们不了解的领域中，投入了大量资金。这些明显是业余者会犯的错误——他们这样操作是因为这是当前的流行趋势，别人也都在这么做，而且别人也告诉他要这么做。然而，这些人并不应该是业余者。他们号称自己是专家，而且还有着很高的收入。
他们对长期的稳定和业务的安全并不关心。在他们身上看不见独立思考的痕迹，也看不到他们对当前时尚消费趋势的质疑。他们作为领导者的举动仅仅体现在他们将自己的业务推向了不可避免的末日。
比起管理和操控风险，这些领导者们更喜欢通过这种不平稳的方法来操作业务。投资者们都想通过将自己的资金交付给那些懂得运用它们的人，来得到相当的回报。而赌徒们是将金钱投资到自己不知前景的事物上。只有愚蠢的人才用借来的钱去赌博，并且在赌输的时候还将自己的赌金翻倍。在有些情况下，许多领导者让他们组织进行投资的资金，往往是他们实际资金的50乃至50倍之多。
领导者必须是机构资源的好的管理者，而不是在高赌注的赌博场上赌博，在这些赌场上，往往一个错误就会让整个业务都处在危险的状态下。