This
website is based on a book that uses the movie, Monty Python
and the Holy Grail, as an analogy for the life in a modern corporation
- an illusive objective, bloated egos, a dysfunctional leadership
team, and idiocy all around. APR 4
WELL, I AM KING!
ENSURING LEADERSHIP IS ALIGNED WITH THE RANK-AND-FILE
Arthur
continues on his search to fill his leadership team, er, round
table of Camelot, and passes a group of peasants outside a castle
who are frolicking?, eating? reveling? (what are they doing?)
in a bunch of mud. Arthur haughtily inquires of the peasants
about the lord who owns the castle. When the peasants inform
him that there is no lord, and they are all part of an egalitarian,
autonomous collective that makes decisions by committee, Arthur
becomes increasingly testy. After all, he is their king. The
peasants want to know who elected him. Arthur begins to tell
them about the Lady of Lake and the magical sword only to hear
the peasants snicker. I mean, that's no way to choose a government,
is it? Finally, Arthur loses his patience and unfortunately
unleashes a bit of wrath on one of the peasants. "Help I'm being
repressed!"
Oh wow! Doesn’t this scene say so much about
leadership? Not just corporate leadership, but leadership in
general. Don’t so many of our leaders seem completely out of
touch with their people? I think the leadership gurus have it
backwards when it comes to leadership skills. Business literature
is filled with books and articles about how best to align the
rank and file with the leadership vision. Isn’t it easier
and more effective to align the leadership with the organization?
This explains why “savior” CEOs brought in to rescue a company
often fail spectacularly, ala Robert Nardelli of GE who
became CEO of Home Depot, only to be ousted 6 years later after
alienating employees, customers, and board members alike.
His autocratic, cost-cutting management style didn’t fit at
a company built around a customer-focused, friendly, laid-back
organization. Later, he went to Chrysler to save them by applying
the same cost-cutting approach that proved ineffective (harmful,
actually) at Home Depot. The same Chrysler that, after a government
bailout, filed for bankruptcy. Yet, the business press
and Wall Street seem to be enamored of the heroic “CEO” figure
who can single-handedly turn a company around as if the other
50,000-75,000 people employed don’t really do anything.
Although many studies have shown that the best CEOs are not the celebrities, but what Jim Collins calls Level 5 leaders - humble, self-effacing, and understated- corporate America is enamored of the swaggering, larger-than-life, decisive and bold personality. It's the person who dominates the meeting and forces his/her opinion on everyone who is considered leadership material, not the person who tries to understand everyone's viewpoint in order to arrive at a decision. Yet, which person would you really want to see as the CEO?
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
(THE REAL ONES YOU NEED)
For those of you who still want to make it up the corporate ranks, here are the skills that you really need to develop. Yes, I know, your company already has a prescribed set of leadership competencies that they expect you develop that go something like this:
- Strategic thinking
- Customer focus
- Performance and results-driven
- People development
- Collaboration and team work
However, many of you have probably realized that you really need a different set of skills to be seen as leadership potential. The real leadership skills are more like:
- Put a positive spin on everything
- Take credit for successes, blame others for failures
- Dominate every meeting you attend
- Surround yourself with people who can make you a success
- Become friendly with the people who hold power
- Network with the levels above you
- Use corporate platitudes liberally (Work smarter, not harder!)
- Volunteer for everything at first and then drop those projects that won’t succeed or enhance your career. Give your inability to say “no” as the reason.
- When thanking the team, imply that it was your leadership that caused the team to gel
- Above all, promote yourself all the time
The
other you need to do if you want to get promoted, is to act
just like the guy (or gal) in charge. Dress like them, use their
favorite jargon, mirror their interests and become their mini-me.
I guarantee that suddenly you will be considered to be high
potential/high performing. We love ourselves and
we love people who are just like us. That's the real reason
why most work places lack diversity.