I recently ran a one day workshop on the subject of Inspirational Leadership. It reminded me that many leaders and managers struggle to do the basics well.
My expereince of running these workshops has identified that the most common barriers to organisational success appear to be: poor communication, lack of involvement, little or no alignment between individual objectives and the organisations vision/mission, silo cultures, little or no praise/recognition and a lack of trust. With the exception of silo cultures and trust these barriers are easily overcome.
The solutions are not rocket science so why do so many organisations, leaders and managers struggle? Particpants on these workshops suggest that the challenge for them is being overly focused on completing tasks in pursuit of short term goals which are not clearly linked to the Vision. Additionally a lack of time due to a lack of resource, over reliance on technology for communication and engagement are frquently offered as explanations. Most people are honest and admit that they simply 'forget' to focus on these issues which don't appear to be priorities, important, relevant etc on a day to day operational basis.
And therein lies one of the key components of being an Inspirational Leader - an ability to look forward and focus on those things which lead to long term success.