Author Archives: ven00kat

#151 Leadership = A Means to an End

Leave a reply
Send to Kindle

I’ve always felt leadership is a means to an end. It is not an end in itself. Meaning, you can’t really develop “Leadership” and hope to do anything useful. You have to apply leadership behaviors in your context, in order to reap the benefits.

Here is at least one person who sees it that way:

“Leadership” is the military’s snake oil (Warning: the article is provocative and polarizing)

This does not mean leadership is a waste of time. This also does not mean leadership is a silver bullet. The truth is somewhere in between.

Leadership is a “hygiene” factor as well as a “motivator.” If you or your co-workers lack leadership, your organization is doomed. Showing leadership behaviors is not enough. You still have to meet and exceed customer expectations before you can declare success.

You will deal with the imperfections and ambiguities in the workplace much better with leadership behaviors. Note that you are imperfect and ambiguous to your co-workers, thus you are both part of the problem and the solution.

Share

#150 Tillage

Leave a reply
Send to Kindle

Tilling the soil is an accepted practice in agriculture. If you don’t till your soil, your fellow farmer will think you have lost your mind. You will soon lose your land too, because there will be no harvest.

Prepare your mind in the workplace by learning about topics you would not normally read about. An earlier blog talks about cross training as a way to do this. If you like to spend time with specifics, devote some time to abstract thinking. if you like abstract thinking, take on projects that have specific and tangible deliverables. By doing things you are not comfortable with and thus would not ordinarily do, you will broaden your perspectives and open up your mind.

The analogy is not perfect. I was surprised to learn there are drawbacks to tilling the soil. I was even more surprised to learn that techniques are being evolved to avoid tilling. The implications of this to learning are…

Don’t overdo it, stick to your strengths, the idea is to open up your mind, not to perform deep surgery and distract yourself. This is one of those times when less is more. You will lose focus if you spread yourself too thin.

Also, look for creative ways to open up your mind. You may not have time to go to the theater or a classical music concert. But you can watch a DVD from The Great Courses.

Share