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Tag: "Entrepreneur"

Brexit and the Failure of Leadership

Yet again, the mainstream media has hidden the main for Brexit.  Brexit, or Britain/UK leaving the EU is at its core a massive failure of leadership.  From American president Woodrow Wilson once said,
“The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.” If the leaders in the UK had been listening to the people for the last 30 years, perhaps their wouldn’t be a surge in the rise of neo-Nazi, and fascist groups.  The mainstream media has been lashing out saying that those who voted to leave the EU are all just a bunch of racists and bigots.  I won’t argue that some of the are indeed racists and bigots, but you know as well as I do that 52% of the population isn’t comprised of racists.  That’s an overly simplistic thought, and like all overly simplistic thoughts, it’s wrong.

The heart of the Brexit issue can also be found in what’s going on across the pond here in the U.S. The popular movements supporting Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump both point to a lack of leaders listening to the people. It’s much easier for the establishment to call Brexit, Sanders and Trump supporters stupid, bigoted or entitled, but the truth lays in the fact that all three of these groups are comprised of disenfranchised people who feel as if the system has turned their backs on them.  Or as the brilliant comedian and philosopher George Carlin once said, “They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin’ years ago.”

Great leaders make sure that everyone on their team is well taken care of.  The unwritten contract between leaders and followers is that each will take care of the other.  So what happens when we put our faith and trust in leaders that we have put into power and then they ignore our needs? A study done by Princeton and Northwestern universities concluded that “The U.S. government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country’s citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful.”

Working-class voters are waking up and realizing that their leaders don’t care about them beyond getting elected or re-elected, hence the dramatic rise in alternative groups.  Brexit would never have happened had the elite thrown down more than just a few crumbs to their followers.  Globalization has eviscerated the middle class.  It didn’t have to be so, but corporate profits became the overarching goal, while the needs and future of the people were tossed into the garbage bin of history.

Now read the following story about Alexander the Great and ask yourself, “would ANY of our leaders today do for his followers what he did?

““Now, however, he marched out against Dareius, expecting to fight another battle; but when he heard that Dareius had been seized by Bessus, he sent his Thessalians home, after distributing among them a largess of two thousand talents over and above their pay. In consequence of the pursuit of Dareius, which was long and arduous (for in eleven days he rode thirty-three hundred furlongs (644km), most of his horsemen gave out, and chiefly for lack of water. At this point some Macedonians met him who were carrying water from the river in skins upon their mules. And when they beheld Alexander, it being now midday, in a wretched plight from thirst, they quickly filled a helmet and brought it to him. To his enquiry for whom they were carrying the water, they replied: ‘For our own sons; but if thou livest, we can get other sons, even if we lose these.’ On hearing this he took the helmet into his hands, but when he looked around and saw the horsemen about him all stretching out their heads and gazing at the water, he handed it back without drinking any, but with praises for the men who had brought it; ‘For,’ said he, ‘if I should drink of it alone, these horsemen of mine will be out of heart.’ But when they beheld his self-control and loftiness of spirit, they shouted out to him to lead them forward boldly, and began to goad their horses on, declaring that they would not regard themselves as weary, or thirsty, or as mortals at all, so long as they had such a king.” -Plutarch, Life of Alexander 42.3-6 (Plutarch. Plutarch’s Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1919. 7. )

July 1, 2016 | 0 comments | View Post

Hardcore Leaders Lead From the Front

One of the common themes occurring today is how many “leaders” lead from behind. Whether it be the chicken hawk politician grandstanding and eagerly offering to send young men and women to fight and die in some third world shit hole, or the CEO that promises the Board of Directors revenue goals that have no basis in reality and then expects everyone else in the organization to move heaven and earth to make it happen, one doesn’t need to look far to see that what passes off as leadership today is sadly lacking. In order to get the most out of your people, you’re going to have to lead from the front.

Over 2,300 years ago, a young Alexander the Great was preparing his men to go into what would be a very brutal battle. What he told his men is something that all leaders and aspiring leaders. At one point in his talk, he said this, “‘Perhaps you will say that, in my position as your commander, I had none of the labours and distress which you had to endure to win for me what I have won. But does any man among you honestly feel that he has suffered more for me than I have suffered for him? Come now, if you are wounded, strip and show your wounds, and I will show mine. There is no part of my body but my back which has not a scar; not a weapon a man may grasp or fling the mark of which I do not carry upon me. I have sword-cuts from close fight; arrows have pierced me, missiles from catapults bruised my flesh; again and again I have been struck by stones or clubs—and all for your sakes: for your glory and your gain. Over every land and sea, across river, mountain, and plain I led you to the world’s end, a victorious army. I married as you married, and many of you will have children related by blood to my own. Some of you have owed money—I have paid your debts, never troubling to inquire how they were incurred, and in spite of the fact that you earn good pay and grow rich from the sack of cities. To most of you I have given a circlet of gold as a memorial for ever and ever of your courage and of my regard. And what of those who have died in battle? Their death was noble, their burial illustrious; almost all are commemorated at home by statues of bronze; their parents are held in honour, with all dues of money or services remitted, for under my leadership not a man among you has ever fallen with his back to the enemy.”

Can you imagine a CEO today giving the modern version of this speech? Alexander made it clear to his men that he had always fought side by side with them.  He didn’t talk about it, he LIVED it!

Are you leading by example as Alexander did?  Would your team die for you?  No, okay, then what would be the modern day work related equivalent? Perhaps working on a weekend for no pay?  Perhaps missing a wedding anniversary in order to make a deadline. Would your people do any of these things for you?  No?  Then ask yourself this, what have you done for your team in order to engender the kind of ferocious loyalty that Alexander the Great did.

 

 

February 29, 2016 | 0 comments | View Post

Hardcore Leadership and How to Manage Knowledge Workers

One of the biggest disconnects regarding leadership has been brought about by our rapidly evolving technology. When I say “leadership,” I define that as someone people follow. And when I say “Hardcore Leadership” I define that as a leader who knows what it takes to get his people to the highest levels of achievement and makes it happen. With the exception of aristocracy, during most of history, leaders were in place because (hopefully) they had many years of experience and could teach and guide their followers on the details of how to do the job right.   The top down model of management, often referred to as Theory X held that a hierarchical model where the guy on “top” made all the rules because he was the boss.  He said jump, and his people asked “how high?” The new model is referred to as  Y Theory, meaning that the organization was flat, more collaborative and less autocratic.

So what happens when the old  leadership model of master craftsman teaching the young apprentice his job no longer applies? The big shift in leadership is this: how do you lead and manage people who know more about their work then you do?  With the explosion of new networking technology (Software Defined Everything and the Internet of Everything for example)  how does a manager who came up learning antiquated programming languages or outdated networking technologies tell a millennial how to do his job? The smart answer is they don’t.  A leader’s new responsibilty is to eliminate any friction in the organization that prevents the knowledge worker from doing their job.  The second duty of a Hardcore Leader to to help his people collaborate effectively.  As technology becomes every more ingrained in our world, helping teams to work effectively together. Thankfully that’s a leadership skill that has always been important and will never become outdated.  Your job as a leader is to empower your knowledge workers.

A Hardcore Leader working with knowledge workers is going to have to create an environment that crackles with the energy of compelling sense of purpose. Say what you will about Steve Jobs, but you can’t deny that he brought out the very best in his people.  Was he hard on them? Hell yes he was, and look what he created.  Many years ago when I was in the Navy, I attempted to become a Navy SEAL, sadly I was injured and  didn’t finish the program (that’s a story best shared over a drink). One of the things that struck me about being at BUD/S (Basic Under Water Demolition/SEAL) was how one of the classes that had recently graduated had a saying, “A day without a hammer is like a day with out sunshine.”  That always stuck with me, because it was a clear acknowledgement that in order to become the best, you needed someone to push you harder than you thought you could go. And that is what a Hardcore Leader needs to understand; that part of your job is to clear the path for your team, and push them to achieve heights they didn’t think possible.

If technology has become so complex that a manager can’t offer any feedback or help to solve a complex problem, then his job becomes obsolete if he doesn’t bring anything else to the table.

February 25, 2016 | 0 comments | View Post