The Servant Leader

The Leadership Gap

Industry based in the United States may have dominated world markets 25 years ago, but today it is losing its competitive edge. Lagging worker productivity may be partly to blame, but the main responsibility for the long-term decline in U.S. competitiveness rests squarely on its business leaders, for the following reasons:

• Business leaders’ focus on short-term deal-making and turnaround profits has diverted their attention from providing quality goods and services.
• Superstar CEOs get press attention and unjustified excessive compensation that separates them from the people and organizations they lead.
• Business leaders do not appreciate the work of their subordinates.
• Leaders lack core values, resulting in scandal in almost every sector of public life.

A free-market society requires an atmosphere of trust. When the public loses faith, government reacts by introducing constricting legislation that inhibits business. The goals of a business must reach beyond the pursuit of profit and should include contributing to social well-being.

Thus, though leaders must have a certain level of intelligence and competence...