I am straying from our normal Sunday Koa Kākou m.o. today, because I want to share something with you while it is so fresh in mind.
Let’s talk about why managers matter
We are hearing the “L word” quite a bit lately, whether in boardrooms, on th…

Rosa, what a beautiful line. To me, what is held within it are any number of illusory battles — between “enterprise” and “community,” for example; or between concrete outcomes and inspiring visions, apparent logic and deeply felt values; “economy,” as you say, and “life.”

It reminds me of the days when I was on the road doing many “Driving Fear Out of the Workplace” speeches. Predictably somebody would ask me to prove the worth of this work. “So if we drive out half the fear,” a questioner might ask, “can you show that it has a measurable impact on the bottom line? How much would that be exactly, say for getting rid of half the fear?”

It began to feel like a trick question (though for some it was not that at all) and I learned to ask, “Who do you need these numbers for?” Invariably, it was not the questioner, but someone else, typically higher in the organization, a boss, the CEO — always someone else, “not me.” Such destructive conditioning.

We are not dealing with our own divided selves.

We all have to learn to ask ourselves (not somebody else), “So what is this ‘good health of the organization’ that Rosa Say is talking about?” And “What can I do to help?” I think if we did this as a practice we would become stronger at pointing out the things that need to be dealt with, and also stronger at listening carefully when it is clear the problems are in part our own creation. We would get stronger because we would be learning to take care of our organizations — in fact — as the gardens they truly are.

The Garden

The wind, one brilliant day
Called to my soul with the odor of jasmine.
And the wind said,
In return for the odor of my jasmine
I’d like the odor of your roses.

I wept,
And I said to myself,
What have you done with the garden that was
Entrusted to you.

– Antonio Machado, trans. Robert Bly

Earlier this morning I read about furloughs, the voluntary taking of more unpaid time off thought to be the precursor to layoffs, and there are problems there as well, such as the fear that you may be calling attention to if you are needed in that workplace at all. This all brings me back to how much we in business underestimate the ‘net worth and asset’ of good health in our organizational culture. It’s the intangible that is crystal clear when it is missing. Consistently strong value-alignment in workplace cultures will result in the way all problem-solving is approached and handled, whether that problem is the unforeseen need for layoffs or something else. Strong cultural values make managerial behaviors predictable for all stakeholders, and more easily understood when they must be applied in these crucible times (as in a recession).

I like your title of “reflective leadership” very much, and I ache for more of self-leadership as a human behavior versus as the org chart leadership title or role and pressure-point. As I mentioned to you earlier (on Twitter), your post sends me on various tangents, and they all connect to this notion of a healthy culture for me. As one example, the financial literacy within the business plan versus business model competency within a culture, and the degree to which employees work “on” a business as full partners versus swallowed up “in” the day to day operations. Today, ignorance is not bliss: We are all learning anew, or sadly, for the first time for some, how much the business of our economy affects the ‘business of life.’

Thank you for your powerful encouragement. I am very grateful for your comments and deeply inspired by your own work to foster engagement.

Alan

My appreciation to you for stopping by. Your own site exemplifies a thoughtfulness that must be present if we are to genuinely address the stresses of our country’s current situation. I am so respectful of the power of conscious market positioning and marketing to drive positive culture change within our organizations. There is so much untapped potential. Thanks for your leadership.

Best to you.