The Ugly Step-Posters
Fundamental truths with no sex appeal
Are you reading this at work? Look around. How many of your coworkers have offices decorated with framed posters espousing virtues and mantras for success? Likely, you have one or two yourself. The motivational poster is a more prominent office accessory than the diploma in today’s business world. But they only tell half the story, if that much. Here are a few of my favorites, given the Paul Harvey treatment.
- LEADERSHIP
We’re constantly bombarded with quotes and lessons on leadership. The position of leader is put forth as a lofty goal to which we should all aspire. You ever see a poster about discipleship? Not only is there a near-total lack of discussion on how to be a follower, many commentaries on leadership seem to look down their noses on the follower role with scorn as if it’s some sort of lesser plane of existence to be avoided at all costs by any self-respecting ambitious human. This strikes me as a huge knowledge gap in the business culture.
First of all, how effective can you be in a leadership position if you have a herd of useless lemmings for followers? Taken collectively, the roles of the followers are just as important as that of the leader. Followers must trust those they follow yet be willing to question them when necessary. Followers must buy in to the mission their leaders establish but think and act independently to own that mission in their daily tasks. Followers must listen to the messages and instruction of their leaders, but they have a duty to send open and honest communication back the other direction as well. Sure, a leaderless army conquers nothing, but a general with no quality troops is just a dude with stars on his shoulders.
My second point, and it’s perhaps more important than the first, is I don’t think you CAN be a good leader if you’ve never been a good follower. You crawl before you walk. You should follow before you lead. And not just once. You need a broad sampling. You need to see, from a follower’s perspective, what works and what doesn’t. What resonates and what strikes a sour note. What people respect and what they merely endure. There’s a reason monarchies went out of style as civilization evolved. A leader who has never been a follower is disconnected from his people. It’s the same with C-level executives who’ve been fast-tracked to the top based on breeding, education or even talent. If they’ve never followed, they aren’t fit to lead.
2. INDIVIDUALITY
I’m a big fan of the Japanese proverb — “The nail that sticks out gets hammered.” I’m not saying that standing out from the crowd is a bad thing. But stand out with a purpose. Otherwise, you’re just an attention-seeker, and that’s as bad in business as it is in a personal sense.
Trends are trends for a reason. Constantly swimming upstream is costly, in terms of human effort and actual money. Don’t be afraid to get in where you fit in, ride the wave of whatever is hot in your market, then make your mark in the smaller niches. You can’t be everything to everybody, so you can’t always stand out. But you can stake your claim to uniqueness on a level scalable to your specific strengths. Pick one area to emphasize, then become its master. Own it. Dominate it. Then add to it. That’s how you stand out. Organically.
3. HARD WORK
Who cares? Seriously, WHO CARES? Hard work is so overrated and over-played. Tell me you’re a hard worker, and you might as well be telling me that you convert oxygen into carbon dioxide. Here’s a universal truth: look at any sampling of truly successful people, and I’ll guarantee you that ALL OF THEM work hard.
Working hard is a starting point. It’s not something to brag about. You can no longer say “I’m going to work harder than everyone else” and call it a strategy for success. You have to work hard in a specific direction with specific outcomes in mind. You have to study hard, think hard, plan hard, strategize hard, then work your ass off to put your strategy into play and make your goals realities. And if you’re doing all that, you shouldn’t have time to tell the rest of us how hard you’re working.
Okay. Enough for today. I gotta go buy some new posters.
