Is the world producing better or worse leaders, in politics and business, collectively speaking? We asked this question in two separate polls, on Twitter and LinkedIn:

All together – 807 votes came in. It’s a good sample:

Votes for “worse” were 76-86%

Is this a result we look at, state loudly or think to ourselves that it isn’t surprising, brush over it and move on? Surely not. I know it can be tempting to do because one’s life is so inundated by more than enough deliverables and expectations.

However, this poll outcome – and implicated trend – impacts every single human being on our beloved planet. These “worse” leaders that our world is producing run our countries, organisations or parts of it, schools, universities and families. Surely we don’t want a world that produces worse leaders when – like never before – it is in desperate need of the opposite: better, great, authentic, effective, excellent and professional leaders.

It always comes down to this question. What can I do about it? Here are some suggestions:

1. Consistently work on yourself as a human being, to become a better person today than you were yesterday. We could write books on what this may entail. In fact, endless books have been written on the subject. Strive to become and remain your Best Self.
2. Anyone can do this. But especially if you are more obviously in a leadership position, become and remain leadership fit. See this to be as important – if not more important – as becoming and remaining physically fit. It’s another way of saying you must participate in continuous leadership development activities and not just the ad hoc program, when your organisation decides to send you, or read the odd article. I suggest you join www.thinklead.app and sign up for Executive Club. This leadership ecosystem – a Virtual Leadership Fitness Club – will help you become and remain leadership fit, excellent and professional, with an associated CLD – Continuous Leadership Development – points system and visible growth on a leadership fitness scale, after signing up for Executive Club .
3. Consciously and consistently work on ways to help your people you lead to become their Best Selves and this by implication means to become and remain leadership fit. Encourage your people to join the Virtual Leadership Fitness Club.
4. Hold leaders above and around you accountable for their sacred brief and responsibilities, even calling. It can be difficult to do with people in positions of perceived power. But that mustn’t deter us. And, more often than not that so called power is perceived, an inaccurate belief entrenched inside us. In this world it is becoming more acceptable to challenge those in power. We must do it, in a mature, authentic way, driven by right motives.
5. Join the movement of calling for the professionalisation of leadership. Watch this short video that aims to address the global picture:  https://youtu.be/a1aOXOO1TYc

So the chain of activities needed to ensure better results in the next few polls is as follows:

1. Work on self
2. Empower others to do the same
3. Hold leaders accountable
4. Support the global call. There are various ways of supporting the global call to take leadership fitness to another level. First, you join, then bring your leaders along.

In our gorgeous country corrupt and incompetent leaders destroyed the main supplier of power. It has and continues to bring our country to its knees. Up to this day no one has been jailed for their treacherous acts. We now have leaders inside that call upon all of us “innocent” people to unite, stand together and do our part to turn around a dire situation. It’s very easy to sit back and refuse, because I had nothing to do with bringing us to this crisis point. But that may lead to an important question: In what direction and with what consequences would such a decision or attitude take me, us? No matter how right I may be in my belief, it doesn’t detract from the truth that our only hope in beating this monster situation is to unite and own it together. Corrupt human beings and leaders were United in their selfish designs and so destroyed the organization. Authentic human beings and excellent leaders will have to be United to reform it to its former glory.

This is exactly the situation with our poll result. You cannot afford to sit back and think someone else must correct it. You have to consciously and consistently implement the above steps. And what helps is to formally join the overall project, so that you don’t feel isolated in this war towards improved leadership fitness; so that you feel and become part of a momentum and tsunami of efforts to turn the collective tide on “worse” – weak, toxic, incompetent – leadership. It starts with doing what you can where you are. But do it as part of the overall vision.

Vision: Mobilising #25000AuthenticLeaders by 2025 and another #30000AuthenticLeaders by 2030. This is the crunch decade!

ThinkLead Ecosystem is designed in such a way that when we arrive at 25 000 in 2025 there will be many thousands more leaders inside the ecosystem. So don’t be fooled by the relatively small number. The picture is bigger.

If you agree and haven’t yet, join www.thinklead.app then sign up for Executive Club to activate your journey towards Continuous Leadership Development, CLD Points and much more.