Leadership is Not
1. Using a team environment as a bully pulpit to control people.
2. Playing one team member against the other.
3. Throwing fits in public, making threats in a rage, and generally being out of control.
4. Abusing employees verbally, emotionally, or intellectually.
5. Discriminating due to age, race, gender preference, or disability.
6. Constantly creating a chaotic environment in the name of change.
7. Lying, cheating, stacking
8. Attempting to control through taking tasks away from others, excluding employees, canceling or not showing up for meetings, and bullying and harassing others.
Leadership Is
1. Meeting people at their level and training them up.
2. Treating people individually and with worth.
3. Being direct in expectations.
4. Using discernment when making decisions.
5. Balancing good and plenty with tried and true.
6. Confronting negative behaviors privately and with dignity.
7. Allowing creativity to guide people forth.
8. Tapping into talents and respecting people.
9. Setting a vision grounded in the organizational vision.
10. Consistently remaining humble and low key.
There is a responsibility when a leader to be upfront and direct with people. This means that when the negative or coaching messages need to come the message is given with clarity and directness. It means that one does not use a bully pulpit to control or cajole to get one's way. It also means going out on a limb for people and holding them up, not breaking them down.
No one is perfect and everyone makes decisions that are not always in their best interest. That said, the message does not lie in the words or even the actions, but the intent. If the intent is negative and aimed to harm another, the message is not clear.
If one has to constantly remind people that they are a change agent or a leader of change or how effective he or she is, the message is clear,
"YOU ARE NOT AS GOOD AS YOU THINK YOU ARE."
If one has to break down and stomp on another or others without letting process take hold, karma has a weird way of stepping in and taking over and it is usually not pretty.
If one has to pay outsiders to wave palm leaves or flatter one's ego, the end result will be an organization going back to where it was before the consultant or change team came in. Consutlants are business people who tell people what they want to hear to get the funds.
True organizational change comes with ownership and authenticity and people with stick with it ness. Consultants are not the effecters of change, they provide a tool. Allowing consultants to become embedded in the culture of an organization is scary at best.
One can only watch the current POTUS and see the effects of manipulation, back stabbing, threats and quid pro quo, and employing bullying tactics to leadership. The tenure is not long and the pain caused to others is intense.
Putting naive or ineffective people in the seat of decision-making before they have matured is not only impulsive, but usually destructive.
