Non-GMO Leadership

Not to get all Birkenstocky about this - but I am a great believer in organic leadership.   Much as I believe organic food to be healthier, I believe that leadership without synthetic additives is more effective. 

In this case,  the synthetic additives would be"formulas" or "systems" that blanket-guarantee success to the leader without any consideration of what is natural to the leader or the specific workplace.

There are books. . .there are speakers. . .there are seminars. . .all of which promise spectacular leadership results if one simply pastes the given, magic formula into the leader's repertoire and if (and here's how the money is made) the formula is followed precisely, voila, success is assured.

The problem is, I've seen enough failures that I can tell you that success is not assured.   Moreover, any formula that doesn't take into account the leader's and team's natural strengths and weaknesses is pretty much doomed to failure.

There is nothing wrong with reading the books. . .going to the seminars. . .and learning what we can as leaders, providing we recognize the following:

• We need to adapt what we learn so that it will work for us
• We need to adapt what we learn so that it will work for our teams

I'm reminded of the time that we were all supposed to carry day-timers - how our days would change!   How our free time would be multiplied!      How our teams would respect us -  if only we carried our daytimers every single minute of every single day with the reverence heretofore applied to the holiest of books!

Truth is (and experience showed)  daytimers worked great. . .for some people.     Other people were much more effective using other tools to organize themselves.    The really smart people took a few of the principles from daytimers and applied those to a methodology that they knew would work for them.  

So it is with leadership.   Cutting and pasting a formula is a synthetic alternative.  Recognizing what strengths and weaknesses a leader may have. . .and then adapting learning to those. . .strengthens a leader's ability to be effective and wholly genuine with their team.

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My book, "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" is available for e-readers, PCs and tablets on Amazon Kindle.