Tag Archives: leadership

Not what I expected…

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I’m back in Memphis after a short road stand this past week. In the end the weekend class was well worth attending and the conference on Tuesday and Wednesday was enlightening. It was the first time I have been in a room with so many senior leaders all speaking relatively candidly about the major issues and challenges that we are facing as an organization. I am not going to go into specifics or quotes because I don’t think that is appropriate in this forum, but I will say that I came away deeply impressed by the thoughtfulness and obvious concern that our highest ranking leaders have for the organization and for the people who make everything come together.

I’m sure more will follow when I have sorted through my notes, but in the meantime, stay tuned because I could be heading back to the District at the end of next week. The fun never stops.

If…

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If I’m ever in a position to direct the work of others, I will not walk off at “quitting time” because I have an itch to start my three day weekend and leave my people holding the bag on a project that I am responsible for delivering on Monday.

Conversely, when in a position to be directed by others, I will not let the mission fail because of poor leadership from those providing the direction.

Ahab…

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I’m convinced that my team leaders have lost touch with logic, common sense, and any grasp of reason that they have ever had. I teleworked on Tuesday… That’s right, working from the comfort of a well broken-in Lazyboy wearing slippers, shorts, and a t-shirt with grass stains on it. Without the typical office disruptions, these once a week sessions (when I’m actually at home) are a welcome chance to catch up on the reading and other minutia that piles up during a typical week.

This afternoon, however, I had my balls busted by a project manager and a team leader who seem to think I did it to personally inconvenience them… Asking why I didn’t tell them; wondering what would have happened if they needed me; how they were supposed to reach me; why I wasn’t at the office holding their hand.

The answers are as follows: 1) My regular telework day is listed on two master calendars; 2) I would have gotten in the car and driven to the office; 3) By e-mailing or calling one of the three phones I had with me at the time (home, personal cell, and office cell); 4) because I have an abiding dislike of sitting around watching other people make changes to documents when there are other things I could actually be doing myself.

I’ve concluded that in its waning days, this project has become the Great White Whale, the elusive target that always manages to stay just out of reach. Our masters have taken the part of the Captains Ahab; obsessed, driven, hell-bent, and consumed only with catching the Whale. When you step back and look at the actual damage that has been done to this project my some people’s malicious actions, one has to wonder why its leaders would choose to take a stand on an issue this trivial.

So go, Ahab, chase your whale, but don’t expect the crew to go down with you.

Leadership…

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I have had the opportunity to work with visionaries and the misfortune to work with rogues. All told, I’ve learned just as much from both. From the good, I have taken lessons of fortitude, confidence, and determination. From the bad, I’ve learned the power of persistence and to accept things that are beyond my own ability to influence. I am learning when to pick fights and when to hold my tongue. Some lessons are harder and others more enduring than others, yet all are valuable in their own way.

Real leaders set the agenda and let good people working for them figure out the best way to get there. Poor leaders make statements like “that’s wrong… fix it” without providing guidance on what aspects they dislike or proposing solutions to make it better. Leaders seek success, while others cower from fear of failure.

I work with good people, trying desperately to do good work… But the leaders of our leaders can’t manage to stop cowering. I hope to God I’ll never be afraid of making a decision.

Coming home to roost…

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Any time you make assumptions, you run the risk of having them not play out as you expected. It’s something akin to writing a check based on the hope of having future income. If, for some reason, your income flow stops, those checks are going to bounce and when that happens often enough, your creditors are going to come looking. If you’re exceptionally lucky, your creditors aren’t men like Sammy Gravano or John Gotti and you’ll still go home at night with your kneecaps and phalanges attached.

Over the last few months, we’ve been trying to sell a bill of goods. More particularly, our leaders at pay-grades above reality have been writing checks on our account and the bills are about to come due. We’re told to prepare to defend a pie-in-the-sky promise that was made for us by higher authorities. It might not be a show-stopper, but it is going to make the rest of this week a royal pain in the ass.