Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Inspirational Leadership: The Victim of the Balanced Scorecard?

Amy Meyer has an interesting guest article in Art Petty's On Management Blog. As the title indicates, it speaks to the tendency of managers to hide behind things like Balanced Scorecards, using them as the end, not as a means to understanding problems, diagnosing them, developing improvement plans, and leading the changes required.

It's an interesting and provocative article, I encourage you to read it by linking here.

The problem, I think, is not with the tools themselves, but rather with the way some managers implement them or hide behind them. No tool, Balanced Scorecard, or whatever approach can substitute for strong inspired leadership. However, the tools can help an inspired leader more quickly diagnose and lead teams to correct problems or address opportunities. Let's not abandon the tools, but use have inspired leaders use them to help their teams perform at levels they never thought they could achieve.

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