The latest buzz in Washington this week is the new book by Bob Woodward called "State of Denial". While it is about the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, the title could apply equally to leaders in a huge number of businesses with regard to the status of their companies. Maybe Mr. Woodward will allow me to use the same title some day for a book about leadership awareness.

I have written in the past about the need of the entrepreneurial leader to wear several hats, as differing needs arise. What would it be like for a leader to put on the hat of an outside advisor and take an objective look at the organization he or she is directing? Might there be a discovery of a "state of denial" as to what is really going on?

Let's look at the hypothetical company Diversified Technical Services (DTS), run by Joanne Fine. It is a company that she started seven years ago to provide telephone system design and installation for small and mid-size businesses. She grew fairly quickly over the first four years, up to fifteen employees and $1 million in revenue. At that point she decided to get into computer network configuration and installation. She has added eight more employees but only another $500,000 in revenue per year. Joanne makes the same $100,000 in salary she made four years ago, but the company is at break even or a slight loss. She thinks everything is all right and just needs a little tweaking.

We have now assigned Joanne as a trusted advisor to DTS, and she sees a whole different picture. Looking at the company as if it isn't hers, but just another company in the same industry, her view is different. She sees a company without a Strategic Plan, one that is unclear on its vision and values, has no mission and has not set any goals for the employees or the company. She discovers that the boss Joanne is not really leading because she is unaware of what it takes to really be a leader. She sees a sales force that was motivated but now is adrift because their compensation does not take their efforts into account, and there is no marketing to support them - and there is nobody telling them what they need to be thinking and doing. Customer service is weak because nobody has described what ideal customer service looks like.

Joanne the advisor sees a company confused about what it does. Computer networking is done but the salespeople don't really know how to sell it. One installation person has been made a salesperson for computer networking and he knows the technical side but not how to sell. He has not been successful. There are separate technical installation crews and they are not cross-trained. Accounting doesn't do job costing. So nobody knows which contracts are profitable and which aren't. In fact, nobody even knows if computer networking is profitable as a whole. There is some resentment between sales and installation, sales thinking installation under-delivers, and installation thinking sales over-promises.

Joanne, meet Joanne. Now listen to her. Leaders should not find themselves in a state of denial about what is going on within their organizations. Accountability, responsibility, goal setting, vision, mission and values are real words that describe real activities leading to desired behavior. Leadership without planning is not leadership. Joanne was kidding herself into thinking she was doing well because her company was growing. She was busy working in her business rather than on it. (Michael Gerber, in "The E-Myth", makes that distinction very clearly.)

Is "doing okay" good enough for you? Has anybody ever set that as a business goal? Is there anyone who would really want "I did okay" on their gravestone? Of course not. So why let that be the status of your business? You can make the changes that are needed in leadership and the rest of the company. Take off the rose-colored glasses. If you don't have a plan, achievement will be hit or miss.

Management Mpowerment Associates works with organizations of all sizes to develop strategic plans, which impact every phase of the business, from sales and marketing, to leadership and management, customer service and team building. A plan will define why the company is in business, what it stands for, what value it brings to the marketplace and what behavior exemplifies the beliefs under which the company exists. Leaders have to wear many hats all of the time. Try the hat of the objective outsider and see what your organization really looks like. Then, do something about it.