Credit: Rock'n Roll Monkey
Does every piece of news, blog and social media post have to reference COVID19 right now? While we are limping our way through a pandemic sometimes there needs to be a break from obsessing.
During a crisis we look for leadership to guide the ship we're sailing into safe harbor. At every company, you'll have tons of managers but not very many leaders. Let's talk about leadership.
At an email-marketing conferences I attended, the speaker made it a point to communicate that we won't succeed without a solid plan.
To attempt to keep doing the same thing without strategy is called "hope marketing" and makes a lot of folks live the reality of "broke marketing."
Hope without a strategy doesn't create leadership. Leadership is developed when your hope and positive thinking are matched with a concrete vision of the future and a way to get there.
Real Leaders Know It Ain't About Them
Word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways to grow a tribe, to create a group of people dedicated to a specific purpose or cause. You'll find this in any major sport - word of mouth is a powerful driver and builds communities.
One of the mistakes people make is defining leadership as the worship of a single person. Identity politics is one of the most divisive cancers right now plaguing America.
Leadership that lasts beyond tomorrow and creates a strong community grows when the leader gives people a platform for spreading ideas that work.
Who do you trust more: an ad you see on your Facebook Newsfeed, or a recommendation your friend made? The friend of course. The culture around a product or service grows when people recruit other people. That's how ideas spread too.
People won't do it for you - they do it for each other. Leadership is embracing that it really isn't all about you. It's about the movement you're creating. The shared values of those who follow you.
Change is Inevitable - Except from Vending Machines
Generally speaking, managers don't like people that stick out. By definition they want everyone to tow the line, and stick within established rules.
Many companies have PR statements that say they are about innovation but reward conformity more than anything else. It was definitely like this when I worked in tech at Facebook. You didn't want to stick out in any way.
Managers were overworked and had no bandwidth to recognize the talents of their employees. I quit my job at Facebook because of this and started a successful consulting firm and e-commerce ventures.
I was a deviant - I didn't fit in with the status quo. But neither did Elon Musk, Henry Ford or Tony Robbins. All of them are outliers that challenged conformity. While I wouldn't say my contributions to society can light a candle yet to these notable people, there's something important to worth mentioning:
Managers don't like deviants, they don't like nonconformists who may be eccentrics or mavericks with too much individual personality. Deviating from conformity is a failure for a manager working to deliver within the rigid lines of their role.
Managers crush nonconformists - that's what they do. Managers don't inspire people. Leaders do.
Leaders understand a different outlook: change is unavoidable and also one of the keys to success. Not human robots.
Credit: Craig Sybert
As it turns out, when you have a workforce that is dedicated to change and more fully engaged in making things happen-- not only are employees happier but they are also more productive.
This is a much better way to organize a business than making people walk on tip toes, using threats of losing job security and fear as a motivation to do a good job.
Leadership isn't just popularity, power and showmanship.
The Harvard Business Review states:
"A successful leader as one who can understand people’s motivations and enlist employee participation in a way that marries individual needs and interests to the group’s purpose."
Find Someone Succeeding & Encourage Them
When someone at the job place has created a workaround, or another way of doing routine work that works better, instead of punishing them for not conforming shine the spotlight.
While it won't always be the case, often innovation comes in small packages from employees just figuring out a better way to do a task that isn't officially sanctioned in the employee handbook.
Great leaders find someone deviating from the norm creating success - and encourage them.
Many things we know and love as part of every day life happened because someone did something different than the norm and challenged the group-think of conformity in the workplace, society or within a specific industry.
Air Bnb is one example of this, so are Lyft & Uber, as well as Google's Gmail as mentioned in the blog about managers needing to adopt flexible strategies from leadership to keep folks motivated post COVID (to not just do the minimal but to exceed expectations).
It's raining right now in Austin, Texas and Leonard Cohen is playing on the online radio station I listen to, Radio Paradise.
As I listen to the lyrics sang, I think of leaders who inspired me in my journey from 9-5er to entrepreneur. And the traits they have in common.
One of the shared attributes every one of them has, is the ability to put aside their own ego and become sincerely invested and curious in how other people think, feel and perceive life.
Who are some great leaders you've met in your life? Who inspires you?
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