Most of you reading this are familiar with the phrase, “The Seven Deadly Sins” as they are commonly referred to. Such sins include: greed, lust, gluttony, pride, wrath, sloth, and envy. I do not wish to compose an article about those sins. Rather, over the course of the next several weeks, I am going to address another list of deadly sins – The Seven Deadly Sins of Leadership! Such pitfalls are ones that a great leader must avoid. There are many leadership mistakes that are worthy of mention but are survivable…and then there are the ones I consider “deadly.” We learned that General Motors was recently forced to issue a massive recall of hundreds of thousands of vehicles, yet, it’s stock is strong and there is no concern for GM’s or their CEO, Mary Barra’s future. Now, compare that negative news with Donald Sterling, the longtime owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. All of those years of successful ownership status were instantly washed-away by an indiscreet and undisciplined tongue during private conversation. Or, consider the former CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich. He was considered a smart and highly successful leader of his company. His mistake was writing a $1,000 check in support of California’s Proposition 8. No one knows, no one cares, right? Wrong. Once the mainstream media caught-wind of his fiscal support for Prop-8, he was forced to resign. The modern age of hyper-political correctness can be extremely toxic for today’s business leaders. Leadership in the modern business-world exists in quite a toxic environment. My goal is to help keep those toxins from poisoning your future, so let’s go! The first of seven deadly sins of leadership is RELEVANCY. General Motors CEO, Mary Barra’s position is safe and secure. She admitted to the faulty ignition switch that can inadvertently turn-off the passenger’s side airbag. It’s been reported that more than a dozen deaths have resulted from that faulty ignition switch. However, Barra was hailed as a competent leader and was even praised for her handling of the crisis. The recall will cost GM hundreds of millions of dollars and several dead costumers. Yet, she keeps her job with praise! Compare that to Brendan Eich’s sending $1,000 check to a cause he privately supported in which no one was killed or injured, yet he was tossed out of his job. So why the dramatic contrast? One word – RELEVANCY. Mozilla is not in the business to form or persuade public opinion with respect to gay rights or gay marriage. And the thousand dollar check revealed a breach in relevancy as perceived by the stockholders. You may wonder, how do you stay relevant? 1. Know your focus. Know your business, your customers, your bottom-line, and especially your job! 2. Stay away from the flash points that stoke the emotional fires on both sides of your...
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Whether you’re starting a franchise, a non-profit, a commercial retail store, a church or an ice cream shop, the one MUST word for your success is PASSION! Passion in the dictionary refers to a range of “feelings” and relates to our emotions: love, rage, anger, or affection. It explains the success of great leaders who are driven to pursue excellence within their business. Also, it explains why many of those successful leaders can be almost volatile in their anger at those who don’t see the vision or who perform poorly. If you are passionate about your work, you will find it difficult to calmly tolerate the poor performance of others! Our second deadly sin of leadership is the word “DISPASSIONATE.” This is not the absence of passion or the opposite of passion. Rather, it refers to one who is not affected by emotion. These kinds of people are usually much easier to work for, but they seldom are the key players in a business’ success. Weak leaders would rather be liked by others than be profoundly successful. Good leaders are passionate about succeeding regardless of the fallout from their passion. Great leaders are passionate both about their business AND the people who help them achieve success. It is my goal to help you become a truly GREAT leader. The starting point is that all-consuming drive to be the best or provide the best in what you do. If you are more passionate about anything else, do that instead. Do not enter business with second-class desire, you’ll get third-rate results. Now, to be fair there are those who entered business mostly because they needed money. But if they succeeded, it was the result of one of two things. Either they were VERY HUNGRY and saw their work as the means to feed themselves and their family, or they were VERY PASSIONATE and were baptized in desire to succeed. Both are related to each other. Hunger and passion are both powerful drivers. My father once took me grocery shopping in his new motor home. Dad took me grocery shopping and wanted to show off his new 38′ quarter-of-a-million dollar motor home. He asked me to pick out anything I wanted. I showed up with a few items, including some juice. He looked at the juice and said, “Put that back and get the generic brand.” I responded, “Dad, there’s only a few cents difference between the two brands, and this brand tastes better.” There in the shopping aisle, I got a 5-minute lecture about pinching pennies. I said, “But, Dad, you drove me here in an expensive motor home, and you’re quibbling about a few pennies?” He replied, “Yes, and that’s how I got that motor home, by watching my pennies.” If you have never felt that kind of emotion about how your business is being run...
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The word “HYPOCRITE” means “one who acts in a manner that is not in person“. In plain language, a hypocrite is one who says one thing but does another. Hypocrisy has to do with repetitious behavior, the “act“. An actor plays the entire performance as another person, never in their “own skin“, so to speak. In leadership, repetitious behavior – the “ACT”, is what the followers, employees and stockholders notice. There are three significant areas where we find these deadly sins of leadership: THE OFFICE MORAL CULTURE: Your private moral life should be YOUR business, not the company’s, but it’s not. What you do in secret, if discovered, will impact the business and the perception the public has of the company. Those are facts. Recently I spoke with five unemployed CEO’s. Four of them lost their jobs because of a climate of sexual promiscuity at the executive level. When your romantic interests get the most bandwidth among employees and co-workers, someone is out of focus. Again, someone has lost sight of the big picture. You were either hired to steer the business or you started the company to perform a service or produce a product. Unless your business is a brothel in Las Vegas, you had better keep your moral compass strong. Keep your focus clear of physical temptations. Now, your love life is YOUR business. I’m just telling you that office affairs are dangerous, divorces are expensive and reputations can get stained. FINANCIAL HYPOCRISY: In the corporate world, financial integrity is even more respected than private life morality. I suppose that’s partly due to the over-importance we tend to place on wealth. But as a leader you want people to be able to say that they trust you with their spouse, their kids, and their wallet! Cooking the books, double standards, outright lies and deception – all testify to the greed that is in our hearts. The headlines abound with even highly-respected financial institutions world-wide who have been victimized by greed. You must learn to view your business as an institution of trust. People know that underhanded things occur in nearly all businesses, even in trusted institutions as banks, churches, law-enforcement, and schools. But when hypocrisy is exposed, it is not so much the presence of wrong as it is the deception and cover-up that agitate the common man. Again, it’s understood that flawed humans run our businesses and institutions. It is also understood that hypocritically deceiving the public or attempting to deceive the employees is nothing but an exit strategy or a career killer. LOYALTY TOWARDS EMPLOYEES: The final hypocrisy is that of the boss playing “C.Y.A:” The disloyalty of a boss towards his employees in an attempt to blame or finger-point to draw attention away from his affairs, his financial failings, his inept leadership, or his plain old human mistakes....
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“Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war!” – John Adams Our daily dose of lame stream media drenches us with constant updates of unnecessary wars that rage throughout the modern world. “If it bleeds, it leads” is an unspoken motto for corporate controlled media. At the time of this writing, Americans continue to be bogged-down in Middle East conflicts in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. And those are just the conflicts we know about. The last 60+ years of American foreign policy have resulted in foreign governments being secretly overthrown with the help of our intelligence agencies…often resulting in “blow-back” which means more enemies than we had prior. The Russians continue to be prodded by NATO and Ukraine. On the home front, daily battles between our Federal Government and the Mexican drug cartels are so often, that it’s virtually ignored by the American controlled press. Visit your favorite sports website or watch ESPN and you’re eyes will eventually absorb pictures of St. Louis Ram’s draftee, Michael Sam, lip locked with his boyfriend rather than articles about his impending NFL season. The NBA headlines were recently flooded not with conference finals articles, but whether a private conversation of owner Donald Sterling and his girlfriend should destroy his 30+ year career as an owner. Performance enhancing drugs continue to reflect negatively not only in MLB, but across the board for all professional sports, including the Olympics. It makes me want to scream, “where is the focus!?!?” Some days I wonder if anyone is actually focused on the actual sport or merely the drama that comes along with it? But it’s even worse when the lack of focus causes strife and unnecessary wars. Unnecessary war is a most deadly sin…for business, for a sports team, and for our nation. And many of these unnecessary skirmishes are a result of someone making himself/herself the issue or of being swallowed up in stubborn pride. It is in the nature of man to fight. Perhaps it’s the DNA from ancient ancestors who had to fight for survival or fight off beasts in order to eat and live. And even though we are “tame and domesticated,” that DNA still reveals itself in close relationships, in our business pursuits – in every area of life. We still stake our turf, whether as a gang-banger in Los Angeles or a CEO of a Fortune 1,000 company. We mark our turf like a dog visiting the fire hydrant. Additionally, we want competitors to know we have staked our claim and they best leave us alone. But the man who will succeed doesn’t allow himself to be drawn into every skirmish. We’re not gunslingers who must accept the challenger of a gunfight for honors’ sake. Dueling and gunfights make for good historical drama, but they are just plain ridiculous. A successful leader chooses carefully...
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