On Leading with Greatness

My wife, Marie, and I are pretty good cooks, if I say so myself, but our methodology is radically different. She will find recipes she likes and purchase the ingredients at the store. When cooking, she will follow the recipe although she will frequently make substitutions due to necessity or taste. For instance, she usually doubles the garlic and reduces or eliminates salt. I, on the other hand, prefer to go to the store and buy what appeals to me. Then, when it is time to cook, I pretty much just make it up. As you may have guessed, we rarely cook together.

Being a leader is not remarkable in itself. For one thing, leadership can be situational or even sporadic. The kid who stands up to the bully to protect her friend is a leader even if she sits back down quietly afterward. The teacher who guides students to understanding is a leader even if he never says anything at faculty meetings. The supervisor who finds it in herself to reach out compassionately to employees who may be troubled is a leader. The driver who refuses to go over the speed limit in a busy residential area even when there is an angry tailgater behind her is a leader.

Recently my wife and I were driving innocently along a city street when a commercial panel van stopped in front of us at a red light. Obviously this was not the most momentous event in itself, but I noticed that the van had painted on the back in large letters,

FEAR DOESN’T KEEP YOU FROM DYING. FEAR KEEPS YOU FROM LIVING.

My first thought (and possibly yours): “Hey, that’s cool. We shouldn’t fear fear.” I pointed it out to my wife.

One thing I have learned over my many years of fumbling through life is that mistakes get made. How is that for a profound revelation? Mistakes happen, and, yes, yes, (yes!), we should learn from our mistakes, which means first learning to own them. Blah, blah. Blah.

Blah.

All true, painfully true, and a topic for another day.

Originally published 12 August 2021

Leaders at every level need to understand that an individual’s perception is reality. This statement is not the same as “everything I believe to be true is true,” which is just lazy, fanciful thinking. Nor is it a license to insist that everyone share your perceptions, which is bullying. Indeed, the failure to grasp this last point or, more cynically, an effort to exploit this last point has led this nation to the cultural-political precipice where we teeter at this moment.

The Lucky 13

1. Clarity trumps everything.

2. Know your audience.

3. Know your genre.

4. Communicate the message you want to convey the way you would want to hear it.

5. Sarcasm is a double-edged sword.

6. Mind your grammar and mechanics.

7. Straight talk is a virtue.

8. Go ahead, use cliches, but sparingly.

9. Euphemism is sometimes necessary, but it still flirts with miscommunication.

10. The same is true for jargon.

11. Be bold.

12. Remember COP — Clarity, Organization, and Precision.

13. Read. Listen. Mindfully.

My Catholic school days taught me a lot, albeit little I was supposed to learn. For one thing, I was quite a freethinker by parochial school standards. I had wild, wild thoughts and too often even blurted them out, which I am certain thoroughly endeared me to my classmates and to my teachers.

Indeed, my attempts at being true to myself and to my intellectual pursuits were so universally well-regarded that by the end of sixth grade, I had become afraid to raise my hand. The bullying from classmates I learned to deal with, but the teachers were another thing. My classroom silence lasted all the way through college.

THIS INSTALLMENT IS AN ENCORE PRESENTATION FROM AUGUST 2021

Welcome to my first Ted talk.

Two types of politics pervade most workplaces. One is the politics of possibility, the idea that, through sheer persuasiveness and appeals to values, people can be recruited and motivated to work together for good. That their passions and their intellect can be encouraged to join forces in common cause for the betterment of all.

The other is sadly much more pervasive, the politics of power, which centers on the ego and the zero-sum game and relies upon the machinery of personal destruction. In this brand of politics, the we is never evoked but in service to the I. Accomplishments remain singular affairs.

The difference between bossing and leading is massive. Yes, of course, most leaders are bosses on some level, but very few bosses are leaders. By that I mean too many bosses do too little to bolster their leadership skills and many in fact assume they are leaders simply because they are bosses. If you make that assumption, I can guarantee you are no leader no matter what your title. Boss is a position. Leader is an attitude of greatness, whatever the position, which is why untitled (and unentitled) employees can be great leaders without being bosses.

I recently heard a local politician quip, “I’m not one to judge a book by its cover, but they put covers on books for a reason.” It’s a clever turn of phrase, and he has a point. Modern book covers are a marketing tool and are supposed to indicate, reflect, or symbolize something about the contents of the book. Therefore, the cover should have some meaning and some bearing with regard to the book itself.