" That will make me look bad "

The last couple of weeks I have bumped into and had conversations with two old classmates. One from high school and one from college.

In the course of catching up on family and work life, an interesting topic of leadership style popped into the conversation. Whether it is because we are getting older, but one item stuck with me in one area where both my friends shared a similar story. One works for a global business and the other for a successful local family business.

They both wondered what practical leadership/management skills where been taught in college and universities in the last twenty years. The similar narrative of both goes like this . . .

It was one of those days when gremlin's and ghost in the machines were affecting the daily work.  As time goes on you learn that some days are just like this and the sooner you let go and stop trying to control the situation, things have a way of sorting themselves out.

However a recent hire with enough certificates to paper a whole room, was becoming exacerbated. They kept trying to speed up the fixes and tasking their team with irrelevant ideas. It got to the stage were about 61% of what would normally be accomplished, was all they were going to achieve this day.

This person kept questioning the ghosts and gremlins and hassling other departments for fixes. By the middle of the second day, hands on hips, they addressed their team " is there nothing you can do to increase the accomplished percentage ?" Some raised eyebrows and then the immortal words were uttered " This Will Make Me Look Bad ".

Inferring the golden halo glow wouldn't be around their heads, when they had their weekly pow pow with the top brass. Pretty soon the water coolers, were surrounded by amateur actors giving Oscar performances, of those famous six words.

My friends relayed how quickly the team lost trust. This person's team, knew from that day on they couldn't be trusted. They realised they were cogs to be used, in making their highly decorated boss look " successful and all knowing ".

Now for the plot twist. This team was highly efficient. In days of past when the ghosts in the machine and gremlins occurred, amongst themselves they would make up for lost ground, when things had calmed down. Now there was a shrug of the shoulders. Pride in their work seemed to have vanished overnight.

And this highly decorated person, struggles to explain the drop in executable actions in their area. One of my friends attempted to coach this person out of their challenge, to no avail. They could not understand that their main aim was to serve the team. Zig Ziglar's famous words went right over their head . . .
People don't care how much you know
Until they know how much you care

This person's position is under review. Both my friends are looking at their interview process as to how a person with limited empathy got through the hiring process. It is something both are big on, as they know it is the sum of the parts, that make the whole successful. What concerns them most is how the volume of certificates hid the lack of depth within the person.

True leadership is having the humility to serve.

Colin Myles Author