There has been an interesting amount of chatter of late around the concept of “when to lead.” What puzzles me is this statement’s inference that there must be a good time to not lead. I couldn’t disagree more – Leadership is an always on, full-time endeavor. There’s an old joke that says leaders don’t have time off, they just have moments of down time. What real leaders know all too well is they’re evaluated every bit as harshly, and sometimes more harshly, on the choices made during their down time. When you’re in a leadership role everything you do is on the clock. In today’s post I’ll examine the fallacy of leading by not leading.
You cannot separate leadership from decisioning, for like it or not, they are inexorably linked. Put simply, the outcome of a CEO’s decisions can, and usually will, make or break them. Those leaders who avoid making decisions solely for fear of making a bad decision, or conversely those that make decisions just for the sake of making a decision will likely not last long. The fact of the matter is that senior executives who rise to the C-suite do so largely based upon their ability to consistently make sound decisions. However while it may take years of solid decision making to reach the boardroom, it often times only takes one bad decision to fall from the ivory tower. As much as you may wish it wasn’t so, as a CEO you’re really only as good as your last decision.
There is simply no substitute for the truth. That said, how do you measure a person’s positional conviction? How do you know if someone is sincere in their communication? How do you know if you’re being told the truth, or just being spoken to in a manner designed to elicit a desired response? Listen to what’s being said…When attempting to evaluate the shifting sands of fluid messaging, or what I like to refer to as spin, examine the choice of words used in the composition of said messaging.
The topic of “Employee Engagement” is something that many CEOs tend to struggle with. Long gone are the days where the executive leadership of a company can remain sequestered in their offices with an internal focus on hard metrics. Given the current economic climate, it takes far more than cost-cutting to survive. It is the CEO who understands the need for focus on the soft metrics of customer centricity and employee engagement that will create sustainable growth in revenue and brand equity. In today’s post I’ll examine the need to have a fully engaged work force…
Since Organizational theory is a hot topic these days, I thought I’d poke a bit of fun at that old corporate tradition that is the Organization Chart. Over the years I’ve seen every type of org chart in existence. Some have come and gone only to come again. Every year or two the latest revolutionary thinking in corporate organizational theory spawns a new form of charting. The dynamics of corporate organization are so revered by B-school professors and management consultants that an entire generation of corporate management has drunk the org chart Kool-Aid. These managers often rush to adopt the latest thinking without any consideration for whether or not the new form of structure is even appropriate for their business. So powerful is this dynamic that entire companies and numerous products have been built to support these latest trends. In the text that follows I’ll share the truth about org charts…
News Flash – the phrase compassionate leadership is not an oxymoron. While many people immediately conjure-up an image of the ever so tough, bombastic extrovert without an ounce of compassion as the picture of what constitutes a real leader, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some of the toughest leaders I know are the most compassionate leaders. If a leader’s primary obligation is for the care and well being of those under their charge, then I would suggest that you cannot be an effective leader over the long-term without compassion and empathy. So why then is it that so many leaders seem to struggle with seeing compassion as a strength and not a weakness? Read on and find out…
We found out today that the N2growth Blog was recognized as the #1 Consulting Blog for 2009 by PostRank. To be ranked as the Top Consulting Blog ahead of firms like Deloitte & Touche, Booz Allen, A.T. Kearny and Towers Perrin is a wonderful honor. What I most appreciated about the list was that the ranking was based upon engagement and influence which means that we’re really connecting with our readers. As some additional frosting on the cake we also made their list of Top Leadership Blogs for 2009 coming in at #12. All I can say is thanks to those who frequent our blog as these results could not have been achieved without you. We’ll work hard to keep up the good work and to continue to earn your loyalty post by post. Last, but certainly not least, thanks to PostRank for recognizing our efforts.
I was checking Twitter yesterday while getting ready to board my flight when a quote attributed to@zappos(Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos) came across my timeline. It read “Culture Trumps Strategy.” I did a double-take on this as it just didn’t resonate with me. Then my timeline started to get peppered with Retweets of this quote from some very bright people. Okay, maybe I missed something here…I really respect Tony Hsieh, the people Retweeting this quote are some very smart people, I better read it again - ”Culture Trumps Strategy” - it still didn’t resonate with me. What did I do next? I Googled the phrase “Culture Trumps Strategy” and found that Stanford offered an Entrepreneurship Lecture by this title, I found several CEOs using the phrase in speeches, press releases, etc., I even found a few blogs espousing the mantra of “Culture Trumps Strategy.” Could this just be an issue of semantics? Maybe it’s just a nice politically correct soundbite that gets some good play, or is it simply flawed logic?
Disclaimer: this video has a political slant, but that’s not why I included it in today’s post. Whether you’re republican or democrat, this video should make you cringe…To watch what has happened to the City of Detroit is just plain hard to watch. That said, and regardless of political sentiment, it shows exactly what happens when bad leadership is allowed to flourish. What happened in Detroit is a result of bad political leadership, bad financial leadership, bad corporate leadership, bad academic leadership, bad community leaderhip, bad family leadership, and the list could go on. If you can watch this video and not be absolutely disgusted, you may be part of the apathy that allowed something like this to happen in the first place. Bad Leadership has Consequences.
There has been an interesting amount of chatter of late around the concept of “when to lead.” What puzzles me is this statement’s inference that there must be a good time to not lead. I couldn’t disagree more – Leadership is an always on, full-time endeavor. There’s an old joke that says leaders don’t have time off, they just have moments of down time. What real leaders know all too well is they’re evaluated every bit as harshly, and sometimes more harshly, on the choices made during their down time. When you’re in a leadership role everything you do is on the clock. In today’s post I’ll examine the fallacy of leading by not leading.
There is simply no substitute for the truth. That said, how do you measure a person’s positional conviction? How do you know if someone is sincere in their communication? How do you know if you’re being told the truth, or just being spoken to in a manner designed to elicit a desired response? Listen to what’s being said…When attempting to evaluate the shifting sands of fluid messaging, or what I like to refer to as spin, examine the choice of words used in the composition of said messaging.
The topic of “Employee Engagement” is something that many CEOs tend to struggle with. Long gone are the days where the executive leadership of a company can remain sequestered in their offices with an internal focus on hard metrics. Given the current economic climate, it takes far more than cost-cutting to survive. It is the CEO who understands the need for focus on the soft metrics of customer centricity and employee engagement that will create sustainable growth in revenue and brand equity. In today’s post I’ll examine the need to have a fully engaged work force… 
News Flash – the phrase compassionate leadership is not an oxymoron. While many people immediately conjure-up an image of the ever so tough, bombastic extrovert without an ounce of compassion as the picture of what constitutes a real leader, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some of the toughest leaders I know are the most compassionate leaders. If a leader’s primary obligation is for the care and well being of those under their charge, then I would suggest that you cannot be an effective leader over the long-term without compassion and empathy. So why then is it that so many leaders seem to struggle with seeing compassion as a strength and not a weakness? Read on and find out…
We found out today that the N2growth Blog was recognized as the 
I was checking Twitter yesterday while getting ready to board my flight when a quote attributed to