Leadership Retreats
If you Google the term "Leadership Retreat" you'll get thousands of hits, many of them about services and facilities provided by organizations whose mission it is to assist the top managers re-invigorate and redefine their strategic direction. Here are some excerpts from the top link on a recent google search; it comes from an organization called- appropriately enough- Leadership Retreats:
Why a leadership retreat?You and your team are at a crossroads. Perhaps your company has grown. Perhaps you are about to launch a new product or service. Or perhaps you're facing ever stiffer competition in an increasingly tougher market. You look at your managers. You know they work hard and do their best - but you feel something else is possible, something you can all reach for together.You wonder how to re-invigorate their vision and commitment to fulfill the organization’s full potential – and their own. You wonder how to instill in them the recognition that they are the most important asset of your organization.What you need is time to step back together, to reconnect with your core competences, goals, and values. Imagine working with a highly productive team, driven by a shared vision and a deep sense of cohesion. Envision a corporate culture that brings out the best in people, that cultivates creativity, accountability and high levels of performance. Imagine the power of highly motivated people coming to work energized, and going home satisfied. Imagine that translated into your bottom line and keeping the best talent on your team?
They make a compelling argument, one for which I- as an instructor of leadership, strategy and organizational behavior- have much sympathy and regard. But looking over recent headlines from the War on Terror, it seems that there is another kind of leadership retreat, the kind where leadership not just takes time to "reconnect with it's core competences, goals, and values", but literally retreats to a safe-haven from the battlefield:
BAGHDAD, July 30 -- The leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and several of his top lieutenants have recently left Iraq for Afghanistan, according to group leaders and Iraqi intelligence officials, a possible further sign of what Iraqi and U.S. officials call growing disarray and weakness in the organization.
"We do believe al-Qaida is doing some measure of re-assessment regarding the continued viability of its fight in Iraq and whether Iraq should remain the focus of its efforts," Brig. Gen. Brian Keller, senior intelligence officer for Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, wrote in an e-mail. But Keller said that the reliability of indications that recruits have been diverted has "not yet been determined" and that U.S. officials have no evidence that top al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders have gone to Afghanistan.
Abdullah al-Ansari, an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader in Fallujah, said in an interview with a Washington Post special correspondent that Masri had traveled to Afghanistan through Iran and designated Abu Khalil al-Souri, the pseudonym of another top leader of the group who came to Iraq in 2003, to run the organization in his absence. "It's not known yet whether he would come back or not," he said, referring to Masri.
Masri "did not escape or turn his back to us or abandon al-Qaeda in Iraq," said Ali al-Qaisi, 32, the commander of a recruitment unit who lost a leg during a battle with U.S. troops in Samra. "We have been informed he left Iraq to Afghanistan for several things such as reviewing the situation of al-Qaeda in Iraq with [Osama] bin Laden." Abu Taha al-Lihebi, an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader in eastern Anbar province who recently split from the group, said he believed the communique was proof that Masri had left Iraq and was likely to be replaced.
Lihebi, a former Iraqi air force technician in his 40s, said one of Masri's key errors was fiercely attacking the Awakening movement, former Sunni insurgents who are now paid by the U.S. military, instead of trying to win back their support. Indiscriminate attacks on civilians also caused the group to lose the support of local Sunni residents, Lihebi said. "Al-Qaeda losing the Sunni population is like a human being losing the ability to drink water," he said. "Because of Masri's weak personality and leadership, al-Qaeda in Iraq was weakened and split and lost the Sunni population."
I have no earthly idea whether Masri's leadership retreat will be permanent or not, let alone whether he'll be replaced by a stronger personality and more capable leader. But what I do know is that there are some universals in leadership, one of which is to not sorely abuse the people who you would lead to the water that you need to drink.
See also: AQI Leaders Bugging Out?