Pop Culture Leadership

Pop Culture Leadership

Are you thinking out of the box? Are disrupting the industry? Are you creating the new frontier of AI? Are you a brilliant procrastinator? Are you Zen like with your soft skills? Are you a level five emotionally intelligent leader? Are you making the right choices? Are you communicating and connecting?

Good grief, I don’t think I’m any of those and yet here I am sitting in a position that impacts 31,000 or so employees per day. For those leaders who read various feeds, blogs, or subscribe to industry publications it can be like a cat chasing a light on the floor. Everywhere you look these days it seems that miraculous words of incredible insight are being pushed on you. I call this Pop Culture Leadership. For those of us who remember the 80’s, it’s like Max Headroom and new Coke with new formulas for Leadership being peddled on us almost every day.

I’m no expert. I have no PhD. I have not done a TED talk (bummer). I don’t hold an executive level position, but I do have real world experience. I actually lead teams and have done so for over 20 years.  Here is what I have found that matters and gets results.

·        Work the problem. Every problem requires the leader to dig in. Before one can lead the workforce, one must know what the problem is. This means research. Research by data mining, analytics, seeking out subject matter experts, and spending the time getting to know the issue. And of course, listening to the people closest to the problem. Before the leader can just give the problem to the team to solve, the leader has to understand the variables in the equation.

·        Share your work. Why bother leading a team if you plan on doing all the work yourself? Team members need projects that challenge them for several reasons. The first one is simple, it develops them (in many ways). It develops their confidence, their decision making, their communication skills, and binds them to the team/project/cause.

·        Stay close to the work. (I’m rolling my eyes as I write this one). Don’t be the leader who says do this and then complains and changes everything once your folks have given it to you. They typically have worked really hard on it with little or no direction, only to have it criticized. Talk about a morale killer. If you don’t like it, then next time stay close to the work. Don’t micro-manage, rather check in from time to time. Ask for updates and previews. Tell the team what it is you are trying do with the work, but don’t dominate their creativity. This builds the ‘team’ thing, where everyone serves an important role in the work. Super important.

·        Give feedback. I hear about ‘rights’ all the time. The right to free speech, the right to vote, the right to live free, and so on. But about the right to develop yourself. How can a person improve if they don’t know what to improve on? This oh-so important. The leader must be very precise. Feedback is a missed opportunity. Remember to explain yourself and get the emotions off the table. Your role as the leader is to make the experience critical, positive, and motivating at the same time. All too often feedback is associated with pay. This is not good, remember Pavlov and the whole cognitive conditioning thing. Do not associate feedback with pay. Rather give feedback more than once or twice a year. Structure your feedback with larger conceptual items in the beginning. Feedback sessions should be part of a regular series of discussions that never really ends. As feedback sessions occur more often those conceptual items start to become very specific (that’s good).  Once this happens the stigma of reviews and feedback lessens. Most importantly, real development and growth can now start. Done right, this really develops trust.

·        Set a good example. Get to work on time. Watch your manners. Keep a tighty work area. Own your mistakes. Be well prepared in meetings. Don’t talk out turn. Don’t dominate the call. Don’t whine. Don’t complain. Say good morning. Enforce the policy. Get someone coffee. Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Carry the heavier package. Be strong when the time comes. Doing what you represent makes it easier for other people to follow the rules, being cool, and working hard.

·        Never stop studying. Earlier I started by talking about working the problem, but studying is what makes your status (as the leadership) legitimate. Being in the know keeps you and the team on top of the game. Always have the student mindset. Reading, learning, practicing, and applying the new skill or philosophy keeps the work sharp. Study both company polices/procedures and outside sources. This keeps you and the team from getting job role burn out. As the leader, you should be the person that the team members turn to. It’s not about being a know-it-all, but rather it’s about self-development which in turn adds to your mentor status.

By now you should have realized it’s all about people. How we set the example, how we encourage them, and how we develop them is part of the leadership outcome equation. The purpose of the leadership thing is to develop inspired and highly productive teams, is it not? So don’t chase every expert’s newest and groundbreaking leadership philosophy. On other hand, do read the experts and then think critically for yourself. Apply what makes sense and challenge what doesn’t. Finally, in your role, remember to do this: dig in, teach and encourage, tell your people how they are doing (often), encourage your people on how to get better, stand tall when you have to, be cool, police the policies, and stay ahead of game.