Why Leadership?

I thought that my first blog (ever) should probably explain why I chose leadership as the focus of my business. And furthermore, why I will spend the rest of my days on earth helping leaders succeed. 

There are two reasons. When I meet new people at social gatherings and they ask me what I do for a living and I tell them, they jokingly / not jokingly say: “Really? You work with leaders and make them better? Wow…let me tell you about where I work.” They then proceed to tell me slightly horrific stories about dysfunctional environments, TPS reports, wasted effort, injustices, form over substance and leaders that clearly don’t understand some of the unintended consequences of their sincere actions to do a good job. 

The second reason is that I’ve been playing a game for about 20 years. When I see people in the hall I ask: “How’s it going?” … 90% of the time they say the same thing: “Crazy busy!”. When I ask about it…they go through a list of all the things. The vibe I mostly get is stress, frustration and displeasure. My gut tells me that many things on the list are not really connected to what THEY believe adds value to the firm. Yet...on they go.

*The game part of this is when they reciprocate, and politely say: ”What about you? You must be busy?” I reply that actually, I am not. Which elicits really funny and telling reactions. Often speechlessness. 

These examples are two sides of the same coin…and are quite complex. The overarching theme I have been thinking about for years is - “Why is it like this?” We spend so much time and energy working. We all want to be successful. Our identity and health is inextricably connected to how things are going at work. So trying to make this better is good for humanity. 

The other thing is that from a purely capitalistic perspective, environments that implicitly reward busy-ness…and leaders that don’t get it…are not successful. Or are somewhat successful but leave a lot on the table. So helping leaders be more aware and intentional…is my mission! 90% of leaders I have worked with are good, smart, driven people who want the best. Often (usually) a few tweaks in approach make an incredible difference. 

This feels like a path worth committing to.