The Most Basic Leadership Filter

Haaaaappy Friday,

If you only know one thing about leadership in a professional organization, know this: Your existence as a leader should always cause people to care more about the organization. Maximally more. Not most of the time, always. That means you can sometimes dip as low as neutral, but as a leader, you can never ever be the reason anyone cares less.

Caring and engagement are interchangeable here. It’s the emotional commitment, enthusiasm, and dedication people feel toward their job, team, and organization.

When people care more, they arrive early and stay late… happily! They take ownership and make sure. They check their work, contribute more creative ideas, and innovate. Retention improves, safety incidents fall, all risks decrease, and profits increase. The organization becomes a well-oiled machine. Happier people, fewer problems, greater resiliency, and more profits to share. It’s a wonderful thing when people are busy solving tough problems together, working shoulder to shoulder, and everyone cares.

And it’s not that hard to get there, but every leader at every level needs to speak with the same voice. A leader's voice. When leaders aren't speaking from the leader's script, they're like sand in the organization's gears.

Everyone entrusted with a leadership title should be clearly and explicitly expected to apply the Most Basic Leadership Filter to everything they say and do, before they say and do it: Do my interactions, demeanor, choice of words, and decisions cause people to care more about this organization, or less? It should always be maximally more.

It’s not enough to be right. This can be hard for engineers transitioning into leadership, but you’ve got to figure it out. Your words may be 100 percent correct and your actions wholly justified, but unlike engineering, good leadership takes more than just being right. If those words or actions result in people caring less about their job and the organization, then, right though they may be, that was the wrong choice of words. It’s not enough to simply be right. Figure that out.

What about bad news, tough decisions, and correcting poor performance? Simple. Here's how: Your organization exists to pursue a virtuous cause. It’s Mission. The decisions made by leaders are grounded in the organization’s values. Also virtuous. As a leader, you represent both the virtues of the mission and the values. So in every situation, you already occupy the virtuous high moral ground. When bad or tough news needs to be communicated to staff, you should always framed it in the context of its effect on the mission, values, and the greater good of the organization. The one that so many people and families rely on. People will actually respect harsh news if leaders consistently frame words and actions in the context of the mission, values, and the greater good for all.

So, no excuses then. Before you speak or act, mentally run your words and actions through The Most Basic Leadership Filter: will they cause people to care more or less? Then, before you speak, optimize to maximize caring more.   

Have a great weekend!

Dave

Attention is definitely on the macro economy and AI

Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

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