The Leader's Podcast with Maxie Carpenter

It's understandable to some degree that the current cultural climate in the country fosters a Risk Aversion approach to Leadership. However, it isn't the answer when you keep asking your people to trust you, yet you demonstrate no trust in them. 

I interact with more and more people every week despairing over not being trusted enough to do the jobs they've been hired to do. They report to Leaders who are resistant to any conversations having to do with ideas that do not align with theirs. 

Organizational culture is determined by the Leader, not by HR, Operations, or any other process that may or may not be the primary focus. If the Leader doesn't set the tone for how everyone communicates and behaves, then the eventual outcome is dysfunction, which we seem to be surrounded by in every sector today. 

The graveyard of failed businesses and organizations is littered with Leaders, who were equipped with great vision and the ability to inspire, but without the ability to chart the path forward. It's one thing to provide a picture of the future. It's quite another to develop, implement and execute a plan that answers three questions: What's next, why is it important, and what are we going to do about it? 

Every organization has a life cycle. It starts with an idea, builds the infrastructure, amps up to impact, and then, if there's no innovation or willingness to adapt, decline begins all the way down to collapse. It's the same with Leadership. It's all about the balance.

Personally, I can't remember in my lifetime if I've ever seen a greater vacuum of leadership across the whole of the fabric of our country. Note I said the whole, meaning not one ideology vs the other, one political party vs the other; whatever. It matters not. The Leadership Vacuum is undeniable.

A conundrum is something that happens unexpectedly. Leadership also, at times, happens unexpectedly. 

The data says that, for the most part, when a leader reaches the pinnacle of his/her profession, they rarely change what got them there in the first place. As a result, you don't see them stay at the pinnacle very long. Today's environment has no patience for a leader that won't learn continually from their people about how to better lead them. 

The final 5 leadership fundamentals are just as important as the first 15 covered in the first three Podcasts. The 20th fundamental may be the most important of all and in today's environment, the hardest to model and maintain. 

The only things that change about Leadership are the character and behavior of those who lead. Most don't fully understand that those who follow, for the most part, model the behaviors of those who lead.