Leaders have lost sight of what leadership is all about. What we need now is not more fads, it's not more people talking about leaders with vision, but rather a change in our leadership paradigm. Research on leadership, organizational effectiveness, information processing, quantum mechanics and chaos provides a set of concepts which not only help to explain why many of today's corporations are not doing well, but also how to make them better. The effectiveness of organizations is a function of the leader, resources, organizational structure and the followers. To be effective, the leader must have adequate resources to accomplish the job, an appropriate organizational structure, a set of followers to perform the tasks and certain leadership skills and abilities.
Leadership is a function of the leader's motivation, skills, style and level of conceptual ability.
High Performance Leadership is founded on matching the right leader to the appropriate organizational level. Motivational level is a function of the match between the organizational structure, the level of the organization at which the leader works and organizational climate. The organizational level and climate must match the leader's skill and conceptual level. Technical skills are peculiar to the type of industry, e.g., chemical, engineering, forest products, etc., in which the organization operates. Interpersonal skills involve those skills required to successfully interact with other people.