Years ago I read a wonderful post by Ted Coine titled, Dear CEO: Who tells you when your baby is ugly?
The post resonated loudly, because as an employee and as a customer I have wondered… [Tweet “Do they not know, or do they not care?”]
Over the past 41 days, I’ve asked that question at an increasingly high level…
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:
Today I visited with a neighbor that was emphasizing how much the company her husband works for values integrity.
As she shared her thoughts I imagined the difference between the list of core values that hang on walls and collect dust, and those that are used to guide decisions.
She went on to share a story about a compound that the company had decided they would not continue to use for their expat’s housing because of extraordinary cost.
The first thing the company did was to decide that anyone that was already living there could stay.
The second decision came when a new executive moved to the area and insisted on living in that compound.
Several years ago I worked for an organization that invited several key customers to a meeting that would last several days.
The company invested a great deal of time and resources in the event, flying in the customers, planning the event, and entertaining them.
When the invitation was sent, the company said they wanted to better understand their customers’ needs and brainstorm ways to better meet them.
After the customers arrived, many were frustrated to discover that the company wasn’t really seeking to understand their needs at a higher level. Instead the company was just asking for a rubber stamp on an action plan that had already been created.
A few short months later I began working with someone that consistently emphasized that great leadership is strategy.
At first, I saw this person share a big vision, arm people with the tools and the support they needed and then get out of their way.
However, as time passed I began to realize that this person often worked relationships to avoid dealing with their own weaknesses and to drive a personal agenda.
And I started to wonder…
[Tweet “Is strategy just a politically correct word for manipulation, or is there a difference?”]
My husband and I are preparing for an extended vacation and made a quick trip to the store to pick up a few things for the trip and a few basics for the remainder of the week we are here.
We were barely in the store when the call to prayer sounded. (Which means that for the next 30 minutes we are free to wander around the store, but we can’t receive any assistance from the staff or checkout.)
After gathering all that we needed we joined a group of families in a semi-circle around a produce weighing station, which was already surrounded and now three layers deep.
As a western woman, I still struggle to understand the rules of engagement in these settings. (Whatever you do -don’t look the men in the eye and don’t smile at them. And although the women may make brief eye contact and are gracious, they don’t always speak the same language.)
So as I looked for a place to focus, a little girl with enormous brown eyes and tiny pigtails spotted my husband and I. (She reminded me of Boo from Disney’s Monster’s Inc. movie.)
