Will the Real Leader Please Stand?

Today’s organizational leaders have much working against their success. Sometimes leaders can be their own worst enemy. However, this is not cause to crawl under a rock and hunker down for the duration of these difficult times. Sure, the press almost daily is exposing yet another dishonest corporate executive, especially in the financial industries, but that’s not you. Today, more than ever, is the time for action—for demonstrating to your employees that you have a plan—even if you don’t. Get out of sluggishness and into action, today!

Make Your Rain Making Visible

Similar to the Native American rain dances of old, they were never performed in isolation, but in view of the tribe; to give the members of the tribe hope—your people need to see you leading the charge in action, not just in words. To build confidence within the people of your organization, they have to visually see your efforts to turn things around, including your personal rain making efforts. This gives them the hope they need to persevere during the current cuts, challenges, and fears caused by today’s economic realities.

This lesson was learned at Mitsubishi Motor Sales of North America, in the early 1990s—the executives learned the hard way; wasting one entire year in their efforts to change the organizational culture. The lesson learned was simple: people believe what they see, not what they hear. The executives were telling everyone what they wanted to happen but were not living the vision themselves.

What’s Old Might be New

In your effort to develop new markets, new applications, and/or new products and services, how much time have you spent? It has been said by persons wiser than I, that most people spend more time planning their vacation than they spend planning their life. What about the success of your organization? How much time have you spent in REAL product/market development strategic planning sessions? For most, not much is the honest answer.

Who can help? The quick answer is: your suppliers, your employees, and your customers. Sometimes innovation is a happy accident and sometimes it is the result of intense organizational processes, individual champions, and intellectual properties—and most times, a result of tireless hard work. What are you doing to innovate?

Your Responsibility and Accountability

Let’s face it; nobody really enjoys the mirror being brought up close. However, in times like we are now facing, that is exactly what is needed. No matter how good a leader you might be, you know that you can do better. Listed below are some of the pitfalls, conscious or unconscious, to leading in a recession:

• Not being aware of the depth of your organization’s situation.
• Not having a “rainy day” contingency plan.
• Not being open to innovation in market, product, and process.
• Not honestly looking in the mirror.
• Living off past glory.
• Expecting others to act as rain makers.
• Hunkering down expecting the current economic situation to quickly blow over.

Your “to do” list should include the following:

• Honest evaluation of your organizations current situation through the traditional SWOT analysis process with your company’s stakeholders; first your employees, then with your suppliers, and last with your customers. Generally the SWOT analysis is done only in the bubble of the executive suite, thereby missing needed additional perspectives.
• Step it up and lead the charge, even if it is only activity for activity’s sake. Activity begets enthusiasm, if positioned correctly and your employees see that you are putting in the time.
• Look to other industries for answers in as much as you can adapt ideas. It is foolish to think you can adopt, however adaptation is an important form of innovation that will serve you well.

Plant this thought in your subconscious mind: your employees have been there for you, helping you to make your organization what it had been. Don’t you think you owe it to them to show up and rebuild? It’s their livelihood also!

Our Sow, Does She Have Too Many Nipples?

When I mention our sow, of course I mean the United States Government. I believe we can truly thank our elected federal officials for doing such a fantastic job of bringing home the bacon. If one were to visit www.cfda.gov, one would find the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance.

We Did It to Ourselves?

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance website proudly illustrated for the electorate is a pie chart at which Americans should marvel at the work done for them by their elected officials. This pie chart will inform you of “…a full listing of all the Federal programs available to State and local governments (including the District of Columbia); federally-recognized Indian tribal governments; Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups; and individuals.”

The pie chart (May 1 2009 updated) lists:

34% Department of Health and Human Services

21% Department of Agriculture

19% Department of the Interior

12% Department of Education

11% Department of Housing and Urban Development

Bringing Home Too Much Bacon?

An agency search at the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance website yields 63 agencies. While some make perfect sense for their existence, others will definitely make you wonder. Further searches reveal 1893 programs listed and 3229 Regional offices. One might argue the point that this is a demonstration of both government excess and patrician payoff. I’m sure you can list a number of recent anecdotal examples government excess and squander-style spending from your own circles of friends, colleagues, and clients.

Perception is Reality

While I’m confidant that our Federal politicians could, via double-speak, justify every agency and every program—they would have to, or why do these agencies and programs exist? However, I believe that most reasonable and curious Americans would do a double take at the way our government spends our tax dollars.

Even if many of the agencies and programs are justifiable, which I believe they are not, there is still the ingrained perception of the American citizenry of gross government waste, incompetence, and protectionism. Does this mean that everyone that works for the government is incompetent? Of course not! I have met, and worked with a number of committed government employees that are fabulous at their jobs—many of the supervisors—not so much.

The Important Issue

I have stated in my seminars and workshops for years, “If you hire a lousy employee, you deserve who you hired.” The same goes for elected officials. We have done it to ourselves. Just to mention a few examples: single issue voters, uninformed voters, ignorant and uneducated voters, voters in denial, voters expecting reciprocity for their vote, exclusive-party voters, and (my favorite) self-interest exclusive voters.

At some point a society has to stop sewing more nipples on the community sow. Our sow can only allow so many to suckle before the sow goes dry. It appears to me that such a day may be soon approaching.

Our Responsibility to Give a Portion

I received a response from Paul Knecht about a recent comment I made. Paul states this about giving, “There is a rule. It was taught to the earliest Jews and is still taught to those who follow Judaism and Christianity. The landowners and their gatherers were told to not harvest all of the crops but to leave some standing so the poor, widows and foreigners could harvest also. There is an expectation that the haves share with the ‘have nots’".

While Paul makes an excellent argument, the question is how much to leave behind for the poor to harvest? My argument is not the idea of voluntarily leaving a little for the poor but rather the fact that the various taxing entities (Federal, state and local governments) in the USA pilfering an outrageous percentage of one’s crop. Paul’s example, to my knowledge, does not state exactly how much to leave, and I cannot imagine a farmer leaving 30-40% of their crop for the poor to harvest. That’s the “total rate” at which the greater majority of successful Americans are taxed today.

The Pendulum’s Swing

Should a society help those that are truly and honestly in need? I believe so. However, just because one stubs their toe, they do not need a $900 ambulance ride to the hospital—a ride and an emergency room visit that is paid by the local taxpayers. In a society, when the benefits to the needy outpace the earning capability of the able bodied, something is truly wrong. The sow definitely has too many nipples.

The question becomes, “How did we get where are?” Perhaps the answer is that for many it was easier and more expedient to write a check to the needy than to lend them a helping hand? Then it was necessary to pay people to organize the handling of the checks. Then a time came when the checks were expected. Today, those checks are demanded!

At some point one has to stand up and say, “Enough!” At some point one also has to say, “Enough” to the politicians. Politicians see their job as being responsible to “bring home the bacon.” Do You? Perhaps the time has come for Americans to no longer give to those that only ask and refuse to do?