I feel sorry for all the leaders who are so busy trying to survive. Why? Because I’m one of them too. And so are you. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You know the pain. The anxiety. The fear. The doubt.
It’s the odorless, colorless, invisible poison that sucks creativity, risk-taking and most importantly, innovation, right out of the room.
And what is the most frustrating, for nearly everyone, is that we all pretend that everything is fine.
It isn’t.
The antidote?
Ah, if I told you, you’d be happy in knowing it, but you wouldn’t do anything with it.
Would you?
PS. Like Tuesday’s post claimed, nothing is private anymore. Learn to live in this new atmosphere. It ain’t going away.
Group Hug
Ever been an employee on the front line most of, or all your life?
Leaders, do you have any idea what it’s like to spend your career working for people like you?
Your employees complain about you as much as you complain about them being high-maintenance, needy, and whiney. It’s simply a fact of life and any amount of denial is ignorant.
Most leaders are good at never letting their employees see or hear this. And employees are good at keeping their secrets too.
Quite amusing actually, because neither one thinks the other knows.
Maybe we simply learn to tune it out the same way we slowly, steadily tune out our declining health, and fail to ever make transformational changes to reverse the slow, steady, and sure signs.
We medicate ourselves with our work, with our misery, and we flock to people who share our pain and frustration.
When maybe, we should find that emotional strength we found buried deep inside us that was rediscovered in the days following 9/11.
Maybe then we could justify hugging our employees. Maybe then transformational change could begin and a new era of teamwork and respect could have wings of hope.
Pick one that still has potential to live on in society:
Privacy
Confidentiality
Privacy is dead. It’s done. Toast. History.
Social media has insured that nothing is private anymore. It’s no secret who you are and what you do – unless it’s hardly worth noticing.
Our only hope? Confidentiality. Otherwise known as trust with the spoken word.
Only fools still believe in privacy. Businesses grapple with and “pray” about this everyday. Much the way the Music Industry grappled and prayed that Napster would go away.
It didn’t. Thank you Napster. And, iTunes.
Still skeptical? Social media is here to stay, has overtaken pornography as the number one Internet activity, and as if that weren’t enough, enter You Tube:
Everybody talks about how important perseverance is. It’s no secret that without big dreams, determination, and steady, committed effort, leaders are doomed to mediocrity.
But when was the last time you told the story of your own success through perseverance?
And how about the time before that? And the one before that one?
Perseverance is a habit. You either do it all the time, or you don’t do it at all.
And once you learn the habit of never giving up, you will also learn the habit of focusing on your purpose.
And when you finally discover your purpose, well, you know what happens next….
