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A LEADERS OR A JERK?
Some years ago, five other instructor candidates and I were being trained to teach a course on public speaking and human relations. As the grueling hours in the lab classes began to take a toll, one candidate summed up the session on leadership...
Ceos And Boards Are Locked In A Spiral Of Doom
Summary: The relationship between boards of director and CEOs are vital to the well-being of any company. Many boards and CEOs misunderstand that relationship and so are locked into a "spiral of doom." The author describes the spiral and ways to...
Creativity for Success
Creativity and innovation are important keys to success in today’s rapidly changing world. Process improvement, problem solving, recruiting, retaining and motivating employees, decision making, dealing with limited resources, satisfying customers,...
My Company's Leadership Sucks!
Today's company's are filled by people who are bored and unproductive. If North American businesses are to compete effectively in the 21st century; business leadership needs to get it together.
Maybe it's the season or just a...
Team Building part 1 - Another Brick in the Wall!
Team Building part 1 - Another Brick in the Wall? The first in a series of articles giving a slightly different viewpoint on effective team building, condensed from an original seminar presented by the author, John Roberts. John is a Freelance...
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Leadership and The Dirty Work
The airline, Jet Blue, has been featured in many magazines as a new company that has hard great results and success so far. A lot too has been mentioned about the challenges they face ahead and about the culture they created at the start and are working hard to foster now. One of the many things that sets Jet Blue apart is their focus on teamwork. Here's one example. They have no cleaning crews - every employee on the flight (including pilots and those not working but on the flight) cleans up the plane. This saves time and money - both things very important to any business.
When I say everyone helps clean, I mean everyone - including the CEO, David Neeleman. Neeleman helps the flight attendants hand out snacks and helps clean up. This takes Neeleman's words about teamwork and turns them into action. He is quoted as saying, "You can't ask employees to do something you aren't willing to do yourself."
I learned this lesson from my father growing up on a farm. There were many tasks I was asked to do - some of them much more unpleasant than picking up newspaper and snack wrappers on a plane - but all of them were done knowing that my Dad
had done them and was willing to do them still, even if he had higher priority work to do.
This is an extremely important lesson for us as leaders. Being willing to do the grunt work, the dirty work (call it whatever you want - on the farm there was some VERY dirty work) builds commitment and shows that all of the work in the organization is important.
As a leader, please don't push this off saying you want to delegate and make people responsible for their own work. Delegation and ownership is important to be sure. If you always delegate the unpleasant stuff, but always want to help with the more glamorous tasks, your comments of delegation will fall on deaf ears.
Help. Show up for clean up. Be a part of the team. These actions will make you a better leader.
About the Author
Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that includes resources, ideas, and advice go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/leadership.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.
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