Category Archives: Definitions

#151 Leadership = A Means to an End

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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.

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#142 Using frameworks

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Frameworks are useful, but they are often misunderstood. There is no shortage of frameworks, every self respecting organization has one. We have one too! Why are frameworks loved and why are they ignored, even mocked?

Frameworks are excellent analytical tools. They help you understand the problem domain. They help you see the problem in different ways, and more quickly. As you know, speed (to insight) is king in the modern workplace.

The problems arise when you expect frameworks to be applicable out-of-the-box or to be predictive. Frameworks cannot do this, no matter how good they are. If you have found one, please let us know in the comments below. You cannot force yourself or your organization into a framework.

The real problem is that you want to abdicate your responsibility to think. In the need for speed, and the need to be productive, you try to give up thinking, but you are trying to automate the wrong things. Automating your thinking and decision making takes time to get it right and will work for only those situations that can be well defined and reasonably static.

So go forth and harvest frameworks. Adapt them, evolve them, create your own. Use it to improve communication, collaboration, and planning. That alone will save you a lot of time.

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