ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that what successful managers have in common are the abilities to diagnose what should be done or changed in order to resolve problems or improve fitness. Because of the difference that skilled leadership can make and because leaders are also often involved in both the diagnosis and treatment of organizational problems and in raising the standards of organizational fitness, it is our view that skilled leadership is a key element in resolving organizational ills and improving fitness. While unskilled leadership is likely to be the dominant cause of those ills. Further, those who lack these skills are likely to make excessive use of Top-down approaches when diagnosing organizational problems or attempting to improve Organizational Fitness and these approaches may alienate some staff. An approach to the problem of getting the interactions between people and situations right has been lurking in the literature for decades but its complexity and power has not been generally recognized.
