I’ve written multiple times in the recent past about the “condition our condition is in”. Here’s another installment.
The title of this article is “In order to have Followers, there must be Leaders.” There is another way of expressing the proposition and that’s “If you don’t have Leaders there won’t be any followers”. If there aren’t any Leaders in your organization, you are likely to fall short…a lot. They are subtly different; but significantly different.
The existence of “leadership talent” in your organization can be directly traced to your company’s workplace culture. Leadership talent relates to the consistent consistency or the consistent inconsistency of your place of work…as a place to work. When people first arrive at the doorstep at the beginning of the day or shift, how many of these employees silently ask themselves, “Will the ship have a rudder today?” Or maybe, the question is “Will the definition of GOOD be the same today as it was yesterday?”
People will follow “an exceptional leader” through good times and bad because there is a Leader. Research study after study, for decades, have heard employees who voluntarily quit give the number one reason for quitting to be “the boss”: the lack of respect given, the lack of trust-based relationship formed, and no sense of value extended for effort given. These are the related workplace perceptions of those who quit. And your perceptions are your reality.
Do you know who are the direct influencers of all of these “perceptions”? One by one, these influencers are the Supervisors, Managers, and leaders (notice the lowercase L).
Another question for you to ponder is, “Will your ship have the rudder it needs today (you)? And are you brave enough to take the crew out to sea?” Remember, you have to cast off each day to get anywhere.
Good Leading.