Is being a good leader about being a dictator or facilitating decision by consensus? The Wall Street Journal, 11 August, 2007 reports that Mr. Gou the founder and chief of Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, the largest exporter in China (a company with annual revenue of $40 billion and 450,000 workers) believes that "the important thing in any organization is leadership…a leader must have the decisive courage to be a dictator for the common good".
In America, we do not like the idea of dictators, nor do we believe that we get good decisions from that style of leadership. However, certainly, we've all seen organizations where competing interests, personality conflicts, scarce resources, and silo mentalities contribute to stagnation and floundering performance. In these environments, a strong leader can sometimes be a welcome antidote — Not that anyone wants to be dictated to, but a leader that can provide a clear vision, direction, and unclog the routine bottlenecks can sometimes set an organization back on path of forward momentum.
User-centric EA is a proponent for "bringing people along", for decision by consensus, and for valuing individual and cultural diversity. We get a better decision and a better product by hearing opposing points of view and working things out. At the same time, organizational leadership is a necessity and sometimes a leader has got to hear the opposing points of view and then "get off the dime" and make a decision.
Leadership Styles and Enterprise Architecture
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