Everyday is Saturday

Leaders come in many shapes and sizes, literally and figuretively speaking. A recent Sam Crowley poll revealed that 95% of people in a leadership capacity today are miscast. The epitome of a square peg in a round hole. My exhaustive survey was conducted over the past 20 years and is widely respected as the athority on leadership surveys, just ask me.

Everywhere I go, I look for the “person in charge” and evaluate a number of qualities. The first quality I look for is do they have a clue? Unfortunately, most self-proclaimed leaders disqualify themselves at this early part of the testing. I was in the bank yesterday and observed the branch manager doing his “stuff.” It reminded me of the same duties performed by the 16 year old kid with acne working at the movie theatre the night before. Lots of standing around, twirling his key chain and checking his cell phone every 5 minutes to see how many important calls he missed. As a side note, the 16 year old kid fielded more important calls than the bank manager.

The title of “leader” is thrown around so much you would think we are swimming in a pool of them each day. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We are swimming in a pool of mediocrity with people who have been given a title because everyone else was too busy making a difference.

Try this exercise when you go into work Monday. Go to your office, cubicle or some other form of corporate housing and take your seat. Gather your thoughts prior to entering your supervisor’s office. Take a deep breath and understand that your supervisor is upset because: the weekend is already over - he just dropped his kids in daycare - and was cut off by three insane corporate slaves trying to get to work in half the regular time. 

Now here’s what you do next. Walk past the four zombies in the aisle having coffee while asking each other how their weekend was, smile nicely at the lady eating breakfast in her cubicle because she didn’t have time to eat at home and give a big hearty knock on your supervisor’s door. After he (I only say “he” because it’s a pain to keep typing he/she) jumps slightly and gives a look that would make Clint Eastwood tremble, ask him if he has time to discuss the future of the organization. At that point he wishes he were wearing diapers.

The look on his face will be similar to that of a canine after hearing a loud dog whistle. His head will turn slightly to the left and a bead of sweat will form above his eye brow. If he is newer in the role his first response will be “What?” If he is older (stale) in his position, he will answer with “Yes, I would love to talk about our organization and it’s future, however I have several meetings (true, but he could miss all of them for a year and it wouldn’t matter) and the day has already gotten away from me (it’s 7:30am). Translation: ” Dude, are you kidding me? I have the social skills of a monk, I’m two months behind on my credit cards and you want my views on the company? Just because I’m your boss doesn’t mean I have a clue, I just want safety and security.”

I know you’re laughing, but this is reality and it should scare the hell out of you. If you don’t start making plans of your own, you will soon become a part of someone else’s plans. Be a leader within your organization or outside of it, it doesn’t matter - just take charge. If your company begins feeling threatened by your new-found knowledge and confidence, then you know where you stand. If they’re smart and try to harness the skills of someone looking to invest in themsleves, then they have increased the value of the organization. Either way, you win and life becomes fun.

I just conducted a teleseminar on this exact scenario “How to increase your value and improve you life.” Leaders are not leaders by default or because someone gave them a new name plate to hang outside their office. People are leaders because others identify their greatness and want to go where they are heading. If they don’t know where they’re going, it makes it difficult to follow them. Take charge of your life, be a leader of You, inc.

By Sam Crowley

www.everydayissaturday.com

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