Courageous 21st century leadership: Leading a co-op after September 11, 2001.

• Author: Lefkowith, Dave
• Position: Lefty's Corner

Dave "Lefty" Lefkowith

Like all Americans, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on September 11, 2001.

Like many Americans caught away from home, I have my own story of "planes, trains and automobiles" as I struggled to get home in the awful days after the attack.

Now -- like so many others -- I'm trying to determine how to react to a world that I believe has fundamentally changed since September 11, 2001.

Many you have been kind enough to purchase my book 21st Century Leadership: Ten Steps to Becoming a 21st Century Leader. But these days I sometimes find the title of the book slightly ironic, since I wrote this book before the first great historic event of the new century unfolded in all its horror.

Having had some time to reflect on the attacks and their aftermath -- as well as the implications for corporate and community leaders in the United States -- I decided to use this forum to update my vision of leadership.

So in this article I'll review:

1) How does a courageous 2lst Century Leader act in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001?

2) What specific steps can co-op leaders take to maximize their effectiveness and the positive impact of their organizations?

3) Why co-op leaders are perfectly positioned to be courageous 21st Century Leaders.

LEADERSHIP IN THE FACE OF TERRORISM

Effective leaders act and feel brave in times of great uncertainty.

This has always been true in a commercial setting. Strong 21st Century Leaders were those wise enough to chart a bold strategy; and then brave enough to ignore the noise and uncertainty around them to keep their organizations focused on their vision.

I've been privileged to work with many such brave 21st Century Leaders during my 15 years working with utilities, as the old IOU cultures mired in cost of service, rate base/rate of return" regulation needed to give way to something more customer-oriented and competitively-fit.

But the events of September 11th -- and the stream of national alerts that our Federal government has continued to issue in the months since -- now brings an urgent, personal element to the bravery required among 21st Century Leaders.

In the current environment of uncertainty and unprecedented danger, it is tempting to stay out of harm's way -- to cancel all travel, to eliminate far-sighted new projects, to allow the focus of an organization to drift.

In today's world of unprecedented dangers, there is nothing safer and easier than pulling in...