Have you ever caught a whiff of a smoky haze coming from down the hall? …The kind that indicates something is not quite right?
Occasionally a fire alarm even goes off, but it is quickly silenced.
…But if you follow your nose the smoke gets thicker around another titled leader’s door.
Yes – I’m asking about a titled leader that may be a level or two below you, may be your direct report, your peer or even your boss.
As a leader do you delegate or do you encourage others to take ownership?
Leaders who major in delegation and struggle to empower others to take ownership send signals that communicate, “It’s all about me.”
Leaders who major in ownership send signals that communicate, “It’s about ALL of us!”
Ever since I read the book Good to Great this quote by former Pitney Bowes Executive Fred Purdue has resonated with me…
“My job is to turn over rocks and look at the squiggly things, even if what you see can scare the h_ll out of you.”
My definition of a squiggly thing is this: Anything that is breaking down people, relationships, organizations, processes, systems and/or results.
[Tweet ” Have you ever tried to ignore, hide from, or argue with a squiggly thing?”]
I spend several hours each week helping my young neighbors improve their English. Last week one of the girls brought a library book that she had chosen for a book report.
She chose the book because it was short – not because of the content. It was a book about an all black baseball team in the 1940’s in America. (A land and a time she can’t relate to.) …So as she read the book I had a lot of explaining to do.
And that opened the door to talk about how racism and perceptions impact individuals and our world.
I was recently cleaning closets and opened a box of paperwork, re-discovering one short story and several quotes that I found so inspiring as a young leader that I shared them with all of our front line employees, supervisors, and managers at our daily meetings.
Then I purchased beautiful paper, typed them up and copied them onto that paper, cut them out, boxed them up and sent them to some of our other locations to share with their teams.
When I re-discovered them, I felt like I ‘d just found buried treasure.
And then I thought of the stories we all hear, about people who climb the ladder of success and sometimes forget where they’ve come from.
So if you have a leadership title of any kind, take a closer look:
