Too many people want to be perceived as being at the forefront of their niche so they will use the word leadership to describe just about anything that will help them make a few bucks. It's sad really, that the word leadership has been sold out. Authentic leadership, servant leadership, reflective leadership, thought leadership, absolute leadership and transitional leadership are nothing more than vacuous terminologies of self-importance in a desperate attempt to carve out a money-making identity that no one else has yet exploited.
Truthfully, this preoccupation with the leadership fad is so last year. It is time to get your head out of the clouds because it's about to rain - hard. Corporate North America is headed toward a corporate culture crisis in 2010 because, in spite of all of the leadership books and all of the courses available, no one has actually been leading.
The truth is, you don't become a leader in a few days or weeks in exchange for money. (If you need proof, go find out which leadership course Winston Churchill, JFK, The Dalai Llama and Ghandi enrolled in and also find out their passing grades.) So while marginal managers have been off trying to re-shape their personal brands from dolt-manager to leader-of-minions, they have been forgetting (or ignoring) their work: managing. And now because of it, workplace culture is crumbling.
Right Management's recent survey results show that 60% of North American workers will be actively seeking new jobs in 2010. Another 21% are actively networking to see what's out there before they decide to update the resume. That's a total of 81% of North American workers who are not happy with their workplaces. Why aren't they? Because while the economy was crumbling, managers weren't managing and weren't responding to the very real concerns of their people. They were too busy pretending to be visionaries who were above that icky business of managing.
That's what happens when no one pays attention to the very people who make the whole business of business work. When people feel let down, culture follows. And people will quickly exit a crumbling culture. And who was supposed to be looking after the culture? The same people who were trying to getting a passing grade in leadership courses.
North American organizations are about to suffer the largest workplace exodus in decades due largely to, you guessed it, a lack of real leadership.
Your need to be seen as a "leader" has been overshadowed by your inability to lead during tough times. You may have passed the course but you have failed the test.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel
1 comment:
One of the major problems today is the leadership style taught today focuses on self interests. Ask the top so called leaders today what their priorities are and what they should be, most will tell you to look after number one, yourself. That’s a failed attitude that is prominent in the executive sector and one that destroys the workplace culture.
When I asked that question to fellow managers at a weekly meeting all of them gave that answer then turned around and asked me what my priorities where, of course they laughed for they just could not see past their own self interests. With any business the priorities should be always customers first, not just in saying it but actually believing in that age old concept that has created many successful businesses, a happy customer keeps coming back and tells others to go to your business, The second should actually be your workers, employees, associates, what ever term you wish to use. A happy employee will do twice as much for you then a disgruntled one, they will also spread that cheer unto your customers. The third priority should go to your fellow managers, from the lowest to the highest managers. Happy managers makes happy employees thus happy customers. Now comes the company as a whole, yes even before your self, however, if you have done all the others properly you will not have to worry about the company as a whole or even yourself because those will come automatically from taking care of the other three.
This whole attitude of self interest and looking out for number one has corroded Corporations to the point of collapse. When you look after only number one will tend to sacrifice everything, even the corporation itself, just to satisfy your own wants and ego. The common practice of backstabbing your peers stems from this attitude and it will filter all the way down the ladder.
Post a Comment