I have a friend that is getting frustrated with her new boss.
The new boss has made several mistakes that are impacting his employees. However instead of admitting what he doesn’t know, and owning his mistakes he either blames someone else, or acts like he doesn’t care.
My friend could understand and overlook the mistakes, however, the lack of ownership is causing the entire team to question the integrity of their new leader and eroding their trust.
Have you ever had someone make assumptions about you?
I despise boxes…. And typecasting…. And limits… And then I realized I was holding some assumptions that were putting others in boxes. Ugh!
…A couple of years ago, I volunteered to help out at a Career Fair. Early in the day, several vans arrived from Goodwill’s Training Program.
As the room filled with people several things blew my boxes of assumptions apart:
The first time I remember learning to trust my gut was when I attended a camp the summer between Jr. High and High School. There was a counselor at the camp that always made me feel uncomfortable. Each time my gut kicked, my brain tried to explain what I was feeling.
A recent conversation with friend and co-author Jennifer V. Miller about the value of leadership fables caused me to examine my love of simplicity in business, leadership and life.
[Tweet “Does a simple message have the depth of an elaborate one?”]
Is one easier to remember than the other?
[Tweet “Are simple messages as valuable or as long lasting as elaborate ones?”]
Personally I love simplicity and I appreciate it when it flows out of others. I learn faster, I leverage the new knowledge faster, and I retain it longer. And yet, I’ve struggled to value simplicity when it flows out of me.
Several years ago a mentor shared his business plan with me. In part of it he wrote something he called a STAND. When I asked what that was, he said it was knowing what you stand for before you are faced with a situation and have to make a choice.
I’ve shared part of his leadership wisdom and how it impacted me in this previous Smart Blog Post: Why Leaders Need To Practice Compassionate Accountability
For the past several weeks I’ve been focused on another part of his STAND: “[Tweet “I choose to be Consistent, Fair, and Explainable in all that I do.”]
These are some of the reasons those words are resonating with me again:
I’ve been studying the impact of parents that have a favorite child that is treated differently than the others. It’s an ugly situation for everyone. ….Even the favored child.
I’ve been thinking of times I’ve witnessed a boss becoming close friends with some of their employees and how that broke down trust with other employees. (Even if both the boss and the employee were holding each other to a higher level of accountability, the perception of unfairness was still there.)
I know an executive that is struggling because he makes hard fast rules that sound powerful in his office, however when the rules are challenged or violated that executive avoids confrontation at all costs.
