Corporate Speak continues...

Today, I saw an article that said "Who is Learning From You?" that talked of the ever popular brain drain of the baby boomers leaving the workplace and yet also had a different twist. It said that organizations... every organization is in one of four stages:

1. Building and creating
2. Managing their organization
3. Defending why it is no longer growing
4. Blaming someone else for why it is not growing

I had to laugh as it seemed so true and it also seems to apply to the stages that we experience as leaders. When we are building and creating something, often identified by the use of the words, "on boarding" or "building strawmen" or some other such drivel, we are eager to bring others with us.

When we are managing stuff, often described as "rallying the troops" or "assimilating" or "dipping into the culture", we get into the thinking that people can be managed as easily as stuff and we begin to call them human resources or human capital.

When things stop growing and we experience "slow growth", a "downturn", or a "stabilization period", we begin to defend our own errors, cease asking for help for fear of showing a weakness and defend directions that we think we have communicated clearly.

When things go south, as we are seeing in many organizations right now, leaders look for blame and rarely are they looking at the three fingers pointed back at themselves when one is outstreched. Heads will roll, people begin to pay and we experience the use of words such as "freeing up for new opportunities", "right sizing", or "Liberating team members"

My big question is this... contagious leaders.... do you experience these stages first or does the organization experience them first and then we follow the example?

Stay Contagious!

Leadership - What does it mean?

Take a look at the word LEADERSHIP - what does it mean?

Let's look at it differently... LEAD-ER-SHIP or maybe we should say LEAD YOUR SHIP. It is likely that somewhere along the way, this might have been the true origin of the word as the historical leaders were also captains of some ship or some army. However, in this day and age, your ship is the team you serve, the team you have the privilege of leading and notice I did not say "your team". They are not yours. The ship or rather department might be your responsibility, but the people are not yours.

Thus, LEADERSHIP might mean "Figuring out how to lead those people who are tasked with helping you run your division, team, company, etc". Leading those people is more important to long term producivity than managing all the tasks that they do. Contagious Leaders focus on the leading of people and not the managing of stuff - you can delegate stuff. Can't you?

Stay Contagious!

Leaders: Say What you Mean!

I spent some time today in a corporate office of a rapidly growing company and after talking with three different executive level folks, I was reminded at how much we become our environment. Things were said that sounded like this:
- Let's log in after the meeting and share pertinent information
- Are you on board with the modifications that our client is requesting of this business unit?
- Is your team ready to by trimmed down and nimble?
- What are the levers that you will be moving as you assimilate into the business?

I wasn't sure sometimes if I was aboard the starship Enterprise (always think Star Trek when someone says they want to assimilate me or my services) or just in a land in which Dilbert would have a hey day. THough I understand everything that was said, I began to wonder if we don't do so much talking at people as leaders that the begin to become immune to what should be our contagious enthusiasm and leadership. Why can't we just say what we mean, which to me for each of the above, would have sounded like this:
- "let's log in.."
See me after the meeting and let's chat about what you heard
- "Are you on board..."
Do you agree or disagree with the changes we are making? Why or why not?
- "Is your team ready.."
Are you prepared for budget reductions and can you do more with less?
- "What are the levers..."
How will you impact business and how long will it take you?

Contagious Leaders say what they mean and don't try to lead by confusing the very resources (yep... people) that they are trying to empower (motivate to do more) to produce effective and efficient solutions (do more while staying creative and positive and being paid the same).

Stay Contagious!