"One who takes action and exemplifies the true meaning of a leader or one who sits by and waits for someone else to get it done for you?”

When I question senior executives about these issues, they almost always find a way to explain it to me so that they rationalize their position to justify their complacency. I encourage these people to decide to get in the game totally or stepping back and getting somebody into the team leader role that will perform to a level that they believe they currently do.

I had a president of a client company tell a bank board recently, that he was amazed at how I (George) related to his employees and got them to do things that he only wished he could get them to do. Nice compliment to me but why didn’t he take inventory of his own methodology and attempt to understand why that phenomenon took place? It’s because he is being dealt lip service and being told what he wants to hear by a select few and is not seeing the whole picture, not recognizing the signs and not listening effectively. Or maybe it’s just easier to be complacent and let it be business as usual.

In another case I met with a client who told me about one of his long time employees resigning. I stated that he had many years invested in this employee and I personally viewed the man as a key player in his organization. I even made statements like, “he has always been first one in and the last one out” and “his passion was the role he played in your company, so what happened to change that?” I’ve always professed that employees quit their bosses not their company.

I asked my client if he tried to save the employee. He said, “well it sounded like he made up his mind to leave and I doubted I could talk him out of it.” The fact remains he didn’t try to immediately to get to the bottom of WHY. If he would have at least had an exit interview program in place for the Human Resource department, it might been a tool that would have helped understand the issues.

But most importantly he didn’t react months early when the signs were there. He didn’t react the day the termination notice was given. He, in my humble opinion justified his complacency by rationalizing why he hadn’t been the “in tuned” leader he should have been.

When YOU sit at the top of the pyramid as a SENIOR EXECUTIVE, and IF YOU believe in your own heart that nobody can nor does perform as good as you, then listen up because I’m here to tell you that stinking thinking.

Picture the pyramid upside down with the point down. If you are the only one who can run the company, make the decisions, make the sales, build the product and/or call shots then what happens if you come out from the upside-down point? The pyramid would start to crumble.

TRUE LEADERS don’t rationalize their short comings. Leaders lead…leaders empower employees to lead and grow…. leaders are champions for their employees…leaders demonstrating an undying compassion…leaders allow employees to become responsible for their actions…leaders are trainers, cheerleaders and counselors…. leaders are confident, flexible and fabulous LISTENERS. So many times, the answers are right before you if you would just listen and recognize the signs and not justify your complacency through rationalization that you are always right. You might ask yourself, what really is the human dynamics of our organization?

As always, please accept my wish for a tremendous week. If I can ever be of assistance to you or your organization, please call or write and I will respond immediately! Your suggestions and questions for future newsletters are always welcome. And here is to a tremendous 2017!

Regards, George F. Mancuso, CPC, CEO (AKA, The Gman) Client Growth Consultants, Inc. George@ClientGrowthConsultants.com