Category Archives: Leadership

#76 Leadership in personal life

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Many of my students who attended the course based on my book have commented that leadership principles are useful in their personal life as well. Yet, in the Preface, I state that the book is targeted for workplace behaviors and not for personal life. I’ve had trouble explaining why… until now.

After some introspection, I figured out why leadership behaviors at home require a different approach.

  • In personal life, the “volumes of emotion” are higher. Anger, happiness, joy, and depression are overwhelming. Withholding love and affection can result in being underwhelmed. 
  • There don’t seem to be checks or restraints on what a family member or friend can say, share, feel, or express. The filters applied by HR are not there to protect the innocent. Yes, religious and social norms are the “HR” at home, but enforcement varies.
  • The amplitude of emotions are higher. the peaks and valleys of anger, happiness, joy, and depression are roller coaster rides.
  • The occurrence of emotions is unpredictable. Tempers can flare, love can erupt, and it is unclear what triggered the emotion.

These problems can be “controlled” and “regulated” better in the workplace. While not perfect, those who seem to cope with it know that our work does not define who we are. While our family and friends also do not define who we are, they are “closer” and the interactions are less transactional.

Yes, the underlying principles are the same at work and at home, but I am not signing up to provide parenting lessons or marital counseling any time soon. That is a whole different book. To be written by a different person.

Besides, the first principle of good strategy is “focus” and I choose to focus on the workplace at this time.

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#75 Volunteer work

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Volunteer work will put your leadership skills to the test. There is no hierarchy, no chain of command, a natural leader will arise from group interactions. All actions and requests are via influence, use of force is the kiss of death for that volunteer effort.

I am hoping my experience is the exception, but the one thing that really strikes me is the snail pace at which new ideas are adopted by a non-profit volunteer organization. The volunteers could be doing other things when they choose to donate their time and energy for a cause. The irony is that their ideas are probably more valuable than their time. Yet, when the volunteers come up with innovative ideas to made a strategic difference, the volunteer organization is slow to evaluate and adopt the ideas.

Only the very persistent volunteers succeed in getting their ideas adopted. This leads to a big problem. If a volunteer organization is not investing in making it easy to incubate new ideas and suggestions from its volunteers, what is it doing? If it chooses to deliver services that do not strike at the heart of the issues it is trying to solve, volunteer fatigue will set in. Not to mention, the problem will take longer to solve, and cost more as well. After the satisfaction of having “done a good thing” passes, volunteers are looking for success stories. I don’t think it makes sense to get into the “activity trap” and “busy work” of volunteering.

Thus my conclusion that the non-profit volunteer organizations want people to donate their time, perhaps their money, but not their ideas.

Next time you volunteer, observe this for yourself. I hope your experience is different. It would be a leadership move to provide this feedback and press for faster evaluation of ideas, let the adoption take time.

Turns out, this guidance is valid in for-profit work places as well.

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