Toothless Leadership

I have been having a tooth ache for a while so last Friday I went in and they said I need to have a root canal done. I know what you might be saying what does this have to do with leadership? While I sit and try to manage my pain until I go in for my root canal on Monday I find myself thinking about what the dentist said. He gave me two options, “root canal” or “pull the tooth”. Since it is a molar back next to my wisdom tooth we decided it was best to keep the tooth that is why it will be a root canal and not a pull.

Leadership can be like this tooth. Is your leadership methods worth saving or should you pull the plug on your failed leadership skills? Leaders should always be evaluating their leadership skills to determine if the method they are using is a valid method. Does that method work or has it run its course?

When your leadership skills only need a tweaking or some minor adjustments it might be a good idea to save that leadership style. It might be time to give your leadership a root canal. Dig down deep to the root of the problem and drill out what is bad and bothering you with your leadership skills. Then when you are done pack it with fresh leadership material. If you do this you will find yourself chewing on positive leadership skills in no time.

When your leadership has gone south and nothing seems to be working you might consider pulling that skill. It might be you aren’t cut out for leadership and you have to pull the plug on your failed experiment. Sometimes being a toothless leader is better than trying to deal with the pain of leadership. Trying to deal with the pain and suffer through poor leadership will only make others resent you and not want to follow you. Time to get out that pliers and pull that bad leadership. Then you can start over by using another method or approach.

What is it for you? Are you ready for a root canal on your leadership or are you going to pull the whole project?

 

The Big Weekend

I would like to discuss an aspect of leisureship. We are in the throes of a long holiday weekend and just spent Thanksgiving celebrating the blessings and giving thanks for everything we have been provided.

These weekends are supposed to be stress free and relaxing. We are supposed to spend time with family and friends enjoying their company. Thanksgiving is a great time for family, food and football. It is also a great time for leaders to relax and enjoy those three things. How did you spend your Thanksgiving? Sometimes people do other things during Thanksgiving evening and the weekend after.

Friday is dubbed black Friday for the amount of money spent at stores on great shopping deals. Do you venture out on black Friday? It is starting to bleed over into Thursday and become black Thursday. I think it is crazy that stores open on Thanksgiving. I say let your leaders and workers relax that day and come into work the next day ready to be met by all the turkey hangover shoppers.

Saturday and Sunday people are now starting to decorate their house for Christmas. This also is become a trend that is occurring earlier and even before Thanksgiving. I am a purest and would prefer not to see any Christmas Decorations lit up before Thanksgiving.

How did you spend all of your leisure time during this Thanksgiving weekend? After all it is about relaxing and rejuvenating yourself so you can be ready for the leadership challenges that confront you.

Here is a list of things you can do during this kickoff to the Holiday weekend.

·         Eat copious amounts of food

·         Laugh with family and friends

·         Cheer on your favorite football team

·         Shop for those great black Friday deals

·         Decorate your house for Christmas

It's About the Turkey

Today I would like to share with you a little Thanksgiving story. Actually it is a made up humorous story that I also hope will be thought provoking. It is looking at Thanksgiving from the turkey’s perspective. It is a question you can pose to your family and friends and be able to understand a little about their leadership style.

I want you to think of yourself as a turkey. There are two kinds of turkeys in this fictitious world.

Which group do you belong to?

• The first is a group of passive turkeys who believe it is their destiny to be eaten on Thanksgiving they view it as an honor to be served and eaten. They would do anything to make sure they were one of the select Turkeys chosen for this holiday.
• The second group is a band of turkey freedom fighters they will do anything to avoid being eaten. They think the lesser birds should be consumed because turkeys are above such a degrading display. They hideout and avoid the slaughter hoping to fight another day

Days before Thanksgiving we find the following scene:

The freedom fighter group is gobbling around with signs that say "Heck no we won't go!!" or "Eat Chicken they are the lesser bird" or "Why not a Cornish hen?" They are having a "gobble In" and they are feeding tryptophan to the police and then they sneak away when the police fall asleep.

Then the passive group is wandering around compliant and innocent excited to potentially be picked. They are fluffing their feathers and grooming their wattles. You see a line of them parading to the turkey gulags, willingly, subservient to wanting to be eaten. They know it is their destiny to be eaten and feel proud to be chosen to be served.

What group are you in?

I find myself drawn to the first group. Fighting to the end to preserve my life and hiding out until black Friday when I can shop for something to cover up my wattle.

Are you a passive subservient leader or a freedom fighter leader? Do you have what it takes to handle the difficult challenges of leadership or do you just fall in line and comply, not really strutting your leadership wattle.

UFO Leadership

Yesterday I looked at Bigfoot leadership. Today I will continue on with the myth idea and look at UFOs and leadership. Whether you believe in UFOs or not you have to admit the idea of life beyond earth is interesting. You might be one of those people who has been abducted by aliens and even been aboard their ship or maybe you don’t believe in any of that. Regardless we can learn some lessons about leadership from UFOs and our belief or unbelief in those UFOs.

A UFO is an unidentified flying object. Are you the type of leader who no one recognizes? Do you think you are a leader but you aren’t that would be a ULO Unidentified Leading Object. Don’t be that ULO instead make your leadership known and become recognized as a leader among leaders.

A UFO is out of this world. Are your leadership ideas crazy and out of this world? As a leader you do need to be an outside the box thinker but don’t have far out ideas that aren’t successful. Your ideas need to be reasonable and they must be successful.

According to the myth of UFOs they also come to earth to take over the world. Don’t be a leader who walks into a situation and tries to take over. You have to be a leader who learns about the situation and then makes reasonable decisions based upon the information you have. Often times leaders just take over and overhaul everything when it isn’t necessary.

Are you a UFO leader or a down to earth leader?

Bigfoot Leadership

How many of you believe that Bigfoot exists? How many of you think it is just another lame hoax or urban legend? I am here today to tell you that Bigfoot does indeed exist. He exists in each of us in the form of leadership. That’s right, I said leadership. I know you are probably saying how can a hoax generate any sense of leadership?

Today I am going to blog about Bigfoot leadership. How you can have Bigfoot leadership and become a leader people will believe in.

First of all what is Bigfoot? Some say it is a gigantic ape others say just a man in an ape suit. Do people know who you are as a leader? Are you just someone wearing a leadership suit or are you a real leader. Hopefully you are a real leader someone others can believe in and know that what you stand for they can grab a hold of. I would hope you aren’t just parading around in a leadership suit trying to pass yourself off as something you aren’t. People won’t believe in you and they will stop following you.

Second, Bigfoot is in hiding. Are you the type of leader who hides behind a desk or a closed door and refuse to interact with your people. Hopefully you are a leader you likes to be noticed but not for your own satisfaction but for the work done by those you lead. Maybe you come out from behind that door or desk and interact with your people, Don’t be a leader in hiding because that really isn’t leading it is avoiding.

Lastly, Bigfoot has many names depending on what part of the world you live in. Sasquatch, Abomidible Snowman, Yeti are just a few of the alternative names for Bigfoot. Are you the type of leader who has gained other names, many which are not endearing you to those around you. Don’t be the kind of leader who gets called names behind your back. Be a leader in which people will call you a leader and respect your leadership. Gain that respect from those people by being a true leader, lead by example and you will be a champion among leaders.

Avoid Bigfoot leadership, instead embrace true leadership and instead of becoming a legend in your own mind you will be an ultimate leader to others.

Brain or Hands

Today I am going to write a little bit about leisureship. It is a way leaders can break from their leadership role and relax on the weekend or in the evenings. Today I had the pleasure of tearing up a carpet in our basement. The basement is flooded and I need to get the stinky wet carpet up and out.

You might say to yourself that doesn’t sound like a lot of leisure. It really isn’t too much leisure but it is different than the normal leadership. Sometimes doing manual work if it is different than what you normally do can give you a sense of satisfaction.

I didn’t finish but got a major sense of satisfaction from finishing what I did accomplish and that is relaxing for me. I like getting in there and fixing or renovating things I might not be the best at it but I like working with my hands sometimes because it is a break from the brain work I do.

If you are one of those leaders who does brain work for a living then find something opposite of brain work to help you relax on those weekends. Here are a few:

·         Renovate

·         Paint

·         Play music

·         Be athletic

If you are one of those leaders who works with your hands for a living then find something opposite of physical work to help you relax on those weekends. Here are a few:

·         Do a puzzle

·         Read a book

·         Watch an educational program

·         Solve some math problems (That’s right for fun, I do it all the time).

Find what works for you to relax and do it so you can be refreshed for the leadership week ahead.

Grand Old Party

Now that we have had a day to digest what happened in the election last night we can clearly make some assumptions about what went wrong. As I listened to the radio and thought about exactly why Romney lost and other key conservative voices I determined that it is the brand.

The Grand Old Party is no longer grand but it is just old. They have a platform that is full of quality conservative ideals however the leadership of the Republican Party believes it is better to distance themselves from those conservative values. They say they will do something but they do the opposite or they climb in bed with the Democrats.

No one wants to vote for and have leaders who say one thing and do another. Sure all politicians do that, Obama said he would close Gitmo and he never did. The difference is the media embraces his changes as positives while chastising the conservative choices. This taints the brand so people view it as a negative brand and want nothing to do with it. Despite the fact that I believe the majority of people in the US believes and wants those conservative values they don’t trust the Republican leadership to deliver it.

I also believe that more and more Americans like the freebies that are being offered and don’t want to let go of the teat of the federal government. America is changing and I don’t think it is for the good. The leadership of the GOP needs to stand up for what the conservative values stand for and don’t back down. They also need to convince America that it is what they want because if they don’t it will get worse before it gets better.

Election Night

Well, our country looks like it will be lead by Barack Obama for four more years. Is this the leadership you wanted? Leadership isn’t about changing the greatest country to a destitute and socialist society. It looks like that is what America wants. They want to be spoon fed everything that the government can give them without lifting a finger to do work.

America is changing because the leadership is becoming too controlling. Leadership is listening to people and making decisions based on what you hear. America has spoken and it looks like America wants four more years of a poor economy, joblessness, high prices and lower incomes. Now that is what America is all about.

We need to rise up as leaders, leaders in our homes, jobs and communities. We can’t let the government control our lives but we must control and lead our own life. Leading is about showing direction and strength even in tough times. It is about overcoming problems and finding solutions to those problems. It is like all those people on the east coast devastated by hurricane Sandy, FEMA and the government are not going to bail them out they need to rise up and band together as leaders and overcome the problem. I am not being callous but all of us encounter problems and often times during those problems people might not be there to bail us out.

We need leaders in Washington who aren’t looking for every opportunity to create a law to control us but are looking for ways to help us create our own opportunities. Far too often Washington leaders want to control us but really they work for us, we pay their salary. They should listen to us and let us be successful because of our own works and not that of others.

Are you a leader or a blind follower?