Saturday, September 22, 2007

Leadership Building As a Sales Tool

When we were all young, we were asked the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Whatever we answered, it helped to set goals in our mind that helped us move through our lives and careers. We may have adapted our thinking at different times, but we still set in our mind that there can be something better for us in the future.

For many, things change when they enter the workforce. Oh, I'm not speaking of the person from the top business school or the son or daughter of the tycoon. I'm speaking of the person who does a solid job.

Organizations seem to have the nasty habit of pigeonholing these people who do good work and having them continue to do the same job or a slightly different one until it is time to fire them in a cost cutting move or until they leave for the next company who gives them a modest flirtation.

You look at them like an old reliable partner or spouse. They will always be there for you until you don't want them any more.

And they need and want some romance, too.

Leadership training and development can take many forms.

It can take the form of the regular round table where everyone has the freedom to gripe and offer solutions. It can take the form of education, mobility programs and training.

It can take the form of using reviews to tell people the truth about how their performance has been instead of sanitizing it to justify a 3% raise.

Teaching people how to lead may involve creativity. After all, being accountable for one's actions is often used to be punitive rather than constructive in many corporations.

However, I was reminded of something by a friend I had lunch with this week of his experiences on the New Warrior Training Adventures I led for so many years. These weekend retreats are not promoted as business leadership courses; they are designed to help men look at the things in their life that work and don't work without their blackberries, cell phones and laptops.

Leadership involves integrity and being accountable for one's decisions. Becoming aware of the consequences of your decisions and actions and how they impact others. Showing care and compassion and treating them as core values i your organizations and helping people see the forest beyond simply trees.

Once many people are on board, they are asked to be nothing more than what they are on the day they hire you. Maybe you will expect them to make no mistakes ever. Maybe you will ask them to deliver more widgets to you.

But they will always be the third drone on the left in the 14th quad from the back for as long as they work for you.

They need and crave romance (hope) that there is more to working for you than that. I assure you that if you speak to people when you hire them about how you will help them learn and grow in ways that fulfill their dreams and desires, you will attract and retain the leaders you complain you aren't finding.

And this will become absolutely critical during the period when a generation of people referred to as the Baby Boomers start to retire and die.


Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
 Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

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