Robin's Diary

Committee or dictator??

It’s probably a good time to discuss the virtues and pitfalls of leadership, regardless of it being a company, a country, a club or association. There are two basic options - a committee or a dictator, both have strengths and weaknesses.

As we can see from recent events, even a dictator with a committee to exert some control doesn’t resolve the problems. As with most things, it's all down to the individuals concerned. A dictatorship works while it works, what I mean is, if the dictator is making the right decisions, doing the right things, they are successful. They have others to support but the final decision lays with one person. Like it or not, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Alan Sugar, and many more have all built great empires based on a dictatorship, however, when the dictator becomes blind and power-crazed, caring more about themselves than whatever they are running, it all goes wrong. Then they need changing, and either the company goes bust, or the staff or voters demand change.

However a committee isn’t perfect, as decisions take too long to be made, ideas get watered down, nothing happens, because someone always objects to change or risk, and moving forward is all about measured risk, and at some point, someone will suffer as a result of change.  So I guess the answer is, make sure you have a great dictator, or a very small committee, and a system to change it before it all goes wrong!

“A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but who, as a group, can meet and decide that nothing can be done.” Fred Allen