The 7 Deadly Sins of Leadership: Sin #5 – Leadership Production
December 16, 2014
“There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.” – Henry Ford
I once heard an allegorical story of a traveling rabbi who came across a fruit tree, abundant with foliage. The rabbi, famished because of his long journey, searched the tree for fruit. Upon discovering none, promptly cursed the fruit tree. Shortly thereafter, the tree withered and died. The moral of the story resonates throughout history. If you reflect the appearance of health and productivity, be sure that you have the “fruit” to back it up!
It’s not necessarily wrong to judge a tree by it’s fruit. Neither is it wrong to judge a leader by his fruit. Leadership means production! Having knowledge of what you’re supposed to produce and actually producing it are the paramount duties of leadership.
I was visiting a large corporate headquarters in the Midwest several years ago. I was greeted at the executive entrance by a very jovial, young security guard. He had an infectious smile and a down-right side-splitting laugh – just a delight some personality. While meeting with the executive team, I commented about the young security guard. Without missing a beat, the CEO replied that the young man had been hired for 2 reasons: first, to be a security driver for the CEO and secondly, to keep the outer office area in an upbeat and positive mood. That was a first for me! I had never heard of a “mood” employee, but I was certainly intrigued.
Well, as fate would have it, I became the CEO of that corporation several years later. I inherited the “mood cop.” I thoroughly got to know the man and his family and recall the long protracted illness and eventual death of his father. I called the mood-cop into my office and told him I didn’t expect him to be upbeat through this difficult time. His eyes filled rapidly with tears as I placed my hand on his shoulder and expressed my deepest sympathy for him and his family.
I told him to take some time off to decompress. He looked at me, smiled, thanked me, and said, “You employ me, among other things, to produce joy in the outer office. You’ve allowed me to weep in private. Please allow me to go back to my job and produce what you expect.” He knew what he was supposed to produce, and he produced it, even when his heart was broken.
Allow me to address three specific areas of concern with respect to leadership production:
1. Know what you are expected to produce.
2. Know how to produce.
3. Just do it.
Studies have concluded that billions of dollars are lost or squandered due to the leaders lack of production. By the time a person gets to the leadership position, his/her work ethic has usually become well-known so it masks the sub-par productivity. Many leaders know how to look busy – how to put on the leaves if you will – even if there is little or no fruit.
Knowing what one is expected to produce can be quite difficult to measure. But inspiration, the vision, conducting meetings, preventive maintenance, client satisfaction – those can be more difficult to define and measure. As a CEO, I like to have stand-up meetings or a lunch discussions. I will ask each of my department heads to tell me what they had done that morning that directly affected our main purpose. It is such a simple exercise but it always shakes up the troops and reminds the employees of why they are important. It also gives me excellent feedback as to the unique challenges leaders face with keeping production first and foremost.
With respect to leadership, there are ageless principles that must be learned and assimilated early on. My focus on the how in this blog, however, is on the continuing education a leader needs. Leaders are no longer only the faithful rising stars from the ranks below; today’s’ productive leader is the continuously learning pupil of today’s information age.
Finally, in the words of a not-so-old Nike commercial slogan, “Just Do it.” When the books have been read, the classes attended and the information assimilated; well, at the end of the day, as they say, you either need to fish or cut bait! There can be no equivocation as a leader. Ted Turner’s desk motto says: “Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way,” because cursed is the leader who puts on the appearance without bearing the expected fruit.
