Leadership. (National Commentary).(Robin Schauseil, National Association of Credit Management)(Brief Article)(Column)

It's amazing how quickly tie passes; it seems like only yesterday that I assumed the role as Chairman of our organization, but now we are approaching another Credit Congress--and the end of the NACM leadership year. Last summer, I happened upon a book about leadership in a bookstore. Perhaps it wasn't by accident that I found myself scanning books on the topic; perhaps it was because I felt as if I had assumed a huge responsibility upon accepting the role of Chairman of our organization and was searching for guidance and answers.

My book purchase for that day was The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership, by James Hunter. The storyline of the book centers around the life of John Daily, a businessman whose outwardly successful life is spiraling out of control. John is failing miserably in each of his leadership roles: boss, husband, father and coach. To get his life back on track, he reluctanly attends a week-long leadership retreat at a remote monastery. To John's surprise, the monk leading the seminar is a former business executive and Wall Street legend. Taking John under his wing, the monk guides him to a realization that is simple, yet profound: the true foundation of leadership is not powr but authority, which is built upon relatinships, love, service and sacrifice.

The book defines leadership as the skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically towrd goals identified for the common good. It goes on to detail the difference between power, or the ability to force or coerce someone to do something-even though they would not choose to, because of your position or might-and authority, the skill of getting people to willingly do things because of your personal influence. Those two concepts seem imple enough; as I began to really stretch to truly understand the depth of those statements, their significance and meaning was very compelling. Eventually, power erodes relationships, and authority is based on them. The book says that volunteers are more likely to respond to authority than power, and points out that in the business world, employees and co-workers are like volunteers. They have the freedom and choice to go elsewhere.

Customers are also like volunteers; in today's business environment, it's about quality, service and pricing...or meeting the customer's legitimate needs. In ...