Leadership attitude change in the 21st Century - by Rick Kaplan

Rick Kaplan, NEREJ

I was recently asked to emcee Methuen Construction’s Leadership Conference and they impressed me with their leadership mindset. We see more and more companies thinking “outside-the-box” on how to lead and manage a company.

Remember the leaders of the 1990s and 2000s who didn’t care about clients, employees or stockholders (e.g., Ken Lay of Enron, Ed Whitacre and Daniel Akerson of General Motors, Lynn Townsend CEO of Chrysler, Kenneth Lewis CEO of Bank of America, Richard Fuld CEO of Lehman Brothers, and the list goes on). We can no longer have leaders who don’t care about anything more than the money that they can put in their pocket with zero regard for the people that work hard producing and purchasing the product.

I am very impressed with the changes that responsible companies are making. Leadership must be accountable, motivating, earn and show respect to their employees and clients, be a mentor and train your management to have the same attitude. If you are a good leader your employees will enjoy coming to work for you every day, clients in return will want to do business and maybe even bring back that thing called loyalty.

My thought on bringing a new attitude to leadership will bring back good paying jobs, great quality products and less mentally and physically stressed employees. Is this really happening around the country or is this just one company in Salem, N.H. that gets it. The good news is that our company leaders are waking up and realizing that it is time to change and adapt to the new world of corporate America.  I think these changes will make America greater than it already is.  What do you think?

Rick Kaplan is media director at the New England Real Estate Journal, Norwell, Mass.