The Leadership Jargon Jamboree

I see many corporate leaders sharing their leadership wisdom on social media especially on Twitter and LinkedIn and I often wonder whether a lot many of them "walk the talk". It is great that people share their overarching thoughts and social media provides a good platform, with a global audience that is there to listen, react, imbibe, implement, ignore or forget (it can be either of these).

Let us now imagine a really global organization with presumably big offices all over the world. To become CEO of such company would surely be a power trip, with major chunk of the time going away in "strategic discussions". People at that level surely have a different worldview of life and for them the bottom-line is the definition of a great organization. Such people have large following on social media and are hailed as "great leaders" and they end up talking about their journeys, their stories whenever they visit a Business School or any conference and most of it, if not all, is jargon and a predictable narrative. To be honest their stakes are different and at many times they have to take decisions which are unpopular with the employees. I know a leader who talks about empowering people but on the floor, he is a micro manager and he has to know everything on a daily basis! So, are we speaking the right jargon? If we really believe in something, we need to showcase it within the organization or the team, before propagating to the external reality. If I am a great leader, I should be practicing it before sharing it with others.

To understand our greatness, with a higher consciousness, we can do a small activity. Let us see if anyone reading this post can undertake it. Create a notebook titled, "My first quarter of greatness" and detach it from the bottom-lines. In a reflective mood, over the weekend, please write at least 10 acts of greatness where you were humane and compassionate in the last three months. Also try to recall what were your thoughts when you were at your best? Whom did you uplift? What was the moment where you went beyond your call of duty? Feel into that energy and share. Rather than the jargon, a beautiful story would emerge.

Sandeep Kulshrestha is an Executive Coach, Human Resources Consultant and Leadership Skills Facilitator. He is reachable on https://www.sandeep.com.co/contact