How does a leader look out for the well-being of each individual in an organization and yet assure the success of the whole venture? It is often seemingly a nearly impossible challenge.
"What's good for the goose is good for the gander" is a very old English saying that basically says that what is good or fair for one person is good or fair for the other. While this may be excellent wisdom regarding individuals, it doesn't always work well when viewing the individual versus the whole gaggle of geese. An extreme example is when a predator grabs one goose, the rest of the flock is able to escape to safety. Although it didn't go well for the individual goose the flock was safe.
Turning to people in organizations and communities, the rights, wishes, and well-being of an individual are often in conflict with the rights, wishes and well-being of the larger group. In an apartment complex, for example, the rules and regulations often include limitations on pets. While one resident may want a large, tough dog for protection, other residents may be fearful of dogs, allergic, or object to having the pet nearby. The limits are set for the "quiet enjoyment" of the majority and some individuals will feel unfairly treated.
One of the primary fiduciary responsibilities of the executives running a company is to assure the financial viability of the firm over time. There are a vast number of pieces to that puzzle from sales and pricing decisions to manufacturing strategies, distribution systems, employee compensation and benefit plans and on and on. One certainty is always in the background and that is that "she's-a-come-in" has got to be bigger than "she's-a-go-out" in the financial arena or no one has a job.
This often puts the executive in the difficult dilemma of having to lay off people who have been loyal and hardworking and who have families at home to care for. Even tougher, there are times when an individual is performing poorly and must be let go and they and their family happen to be really in need. While it is one of the most painful decisions an executive has to make, she or he must keep the good of the whole clearly in mind and not just the individual.
Such decisions are what a longtime colleague labels "wicked problems" or problems for which there is no easy or clearly right answer.
Schools constantly have to make choices about curriculum, class assignments, and allowable behavior. The goal is to produce the most value for the most students, given the resources available. That may mean that students who need special education or guidance don't get all they need. While this involves painful choices, it does reflect the challenges of operating a school system as well as can be done for the majority of students.
Government faces the same challenges. The current issue in Congress regarding extending unemployment benefits reflects the conflict between caring for those in need and the necessity to bring overall expenditures in line. My point is not to take sides or engage in the whole question of overall spending priorities, it is to illustrate that in nearly all arenas of leadership including government these types of choices exist
The difficulty and unpleasantness of these "good for the group or good for the individual" decisions goes with the territory of leadership. A good leader faces the difficulty, analyzes as much as possible, makes the best decision given the facts at hand at the time, and then forgives themselves for inflicting consequences on those who may be hurt in the process.
In an article about how to rethink global strategy
In mid-December we wrote one of our year end, "get ready for next year" blog posts called, "
What excited me about the article were the studies that show that, “the more unexpected something is, the more conscious we are of it.” Your brain has to work harder when what shows up doesn’t match prediction, or expectation. What this means to me is that the most highly leveraged way to get yourself and your team in to powerful action is to start throwing new stuff in front of your collective brains. Create a BOLD vision that you can’t prove based on the past. You will be stimulated, more conscious, and therefore more present. You will be unleashing creativity instead of invoking your past experience, circumstances, knowledge, (or lack of it), and limitations.
To move into a New Year powerfully and to create the results you want there are some key steps to take. The first is creating an "elegant ending" to the past. Last week we posted about "
If you’ve been successful at this level of work and/or are ready to take on your first effort at a Strategic Plan for your company or affiliation, we suggest using what we call our “2130 Partners Hot Wired Strategic Plan.” We call it Hot Wired because it covers many of the levels and topics of an elaborate plan and yet you can produce a decent draft in a couple of hours. The next pass can then be developed to whatever level of detail you wish. The key, however, is to get the initial draft knocked out in as short a time as you can so that you shift your paradigm about goals and actions as you develop the more detailed plans. 
This is the time of year when the majority of our clients and friends are working on "what’s next." The effort ranges from New Year’s resolutions, to budgets, to creating an entirely new vision and, (hopefully), strategy to go with it.
Most often, we find these efforts produce predictions based on past experience, rather than launching a truly bold vision. Vision has more to do with a dream for the future than what's happened in the past. (We talk a lot about the differences 
The bad news part is that past-based predictions also keep us enslaved to what’s stored in our mental database, (or what we fondly call "the mental File Cabinet.") It keeps our attention on our limitations. For example, we know of a current head-hunter who is working on a placement. He has recently talked with a potential candidate and told him, “I can’t present you for this CEO job, for which you are an excellent candidate, because you don’t have a chemistry degree." By the way, the last CEO, (who failed), had a chemistry degree and the Board of Directors insists on the new candidates having one also. So it's an interesting issue. In this example, if a chemistry degree could predict and determine success, why did the previous guy fail? Why does it make it a given that this other outstanding candidate will fail because he doesn't have one? Somewhere in the past, this notion became a "predictor of success" and even in the face of evidence to the contrary, it's still being pursued. (This is why we used the strong language "enslaved" in the first sentence of this paragraph.)
In the opening ceremony, I did a quick scan of the global picture of women’s leadership in the highest positions. I outlined a simple process to follow to make you most effective in your pursuits. I then pointed out a series of qualities for you to bring to your work to be successful. Lastly, I addressed the requirements for men to be most supportive of a woman's passion and purpose. I declared that in the end both women and men must listen to their hearts and trust themselves. Identify your vision or "Yonder Star" and the path to it and get to work! Be courageous, authentic, collaborative, compassionaite, patient and persistent. The joy in in the journey and the learning along the way.
So let’s get specific. Here is an example of a really big vision or Yonder Star. Applicants for next year’s World Forum For The Future of Women were asked to write a brief essay on women's lives in a perfect world. Part of what one woman said was, “In a perfect world, women are really equal with men. They do not have to lose weight in order to get the praise of their boyfriends. A woman is a god of herself, not her boyfriend, family or someone else. She is totally free and her spirits are strong. She makes her own life colorful and has a say in society. She belongs to herself. She belongs to the world too. She thinks for the animals, the children, even our beautiful world. Her eyesight is so big. Life is full of ups and downs, but she always keeps her heart basking in the sun. She knows that every dawn will present a fine prospect for her to unfold and the world will always be about new hopes in her eyes.”
For the men-if you intend to be a partner with a highly committed and passionate woman leader, be prepared for surprises. At times, your emotions may swing from very excited to wanting to give up. To be an equal partner will mean that much of what you have learned by listening and watching other boys and men while you were growing up will not be valid or useful in partnering. These old ways of relating to women may even cause you great pain.
In a recent post we explored how the idea of the 
the most critical notion of all when it comes to sustainability. Command-and-control leadership and traditional service delivery models for development are fatally flawed in this regard. If local collaborative capacity building has not taken place, whether in a village in Afghanistan, or on the factory floor, programs fall apart as soon as the "top down providers" leave.
If you have done the completion work we recommended in our last post, it’s time to move on to creating and documenting your 2010, (or longer), Yonder Star(s) and creating plans for fulfillment.
If you have never taken the time to sit down and map out your Yonder Star, you might start by doing some thinking about real, meaningful New Year’s resolutions. You don't necessarily have to think of something new and different that you have never tried before. Most of us have "chronic resolutions," which are ones that we promise ourselves every year and at some point they get lost along the way. The difference this year should be to create an action plan and a timeline to go with your resolutions/goals. Breaking your vision down into the action steps you need to take to make it a reality will help you see each step of the path. Often big visions are not as daunting when you break them down into manageable pieces. The other key is timing. Create timeframes for your goals that are realistic for you. After you have written it, take your plan and keep it somewhere visible where you can refer to it often. If you bury it in a drawer or file somewhere it will just slip away beneath the current of your life.
stretching yourself enough? Focus on designing the most catalytic, highly leveraged action steps you can. By catalytic we mean that your actions produce the intended results without your being used up in the process. By highly leveraged, we mean you produce very big results with minimal resources.