Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

A universal truth is that politics exist within every workplace environment.  You may read about workplaces like Zappo's and Menlo Innovations . And to many of us that read about these places, there is a certain degree of skepticism because we have experienced no such nirvana.  However, the truth is that such places exist and the leaders of these companies have learned to minimize or eradicate the office politics that can drag down the productivity or efficiency of a company. Worse, office politics can keep the organization from coming close to realizing it's potential.  In the majority of companies, office politics abound and it's primarily driven by the leadership that's in place.  Here's how to tell if you are dealing with a leader that is a political animal. This is dangerous, both for employees and the company. When talking to your peers about a person they either say, "Watch your back," or "He / she is dangerous."  Red flags sho...

Resilience ::  the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens. - Merriam-Webster  Insanity :: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein Read enough books on raising successful children and you'll see the words, "resilient" and "grit' come up time and time again.  The more that your child is willing to work through a problem and not give in to immediate gratification, the higher the likelihood of him or her becoming successful in life.    What's missing from the equation is the "why" or purpose of working through the problem of delaying gratification in the first place.  As children, motivation may have been more extrinsic than intrinsic. But as adults, it's definitely become more intrinsic. (Although many companies would like to believe that throwing points, icons, and cash at you is motivation in itself).  If you don't believe that there ...

When you are in a challenging personality situation at work, is it a good idea to bring all of the right people together and lay all of your cards out on the table? For example, you know that you are not in a good political situation and from a career perspective, there is limited upward mobility, or any mobility in general, because of it.  What do you do? Any smart and aware person knows and feels when the situation is not a good one.  Any smart and aware person would instinctively want to have that difficult conversation with the right people in order to clear the air and either affirm what he / she perceives to be true or work to close the gap between the perception of the situation and what others think. Unfortunately that is a very, very bad idea.  Many of the environments that we work in are not safe environments. Or, as Simon Sinek likes to refer to in Leaders Eat Last , there is no circle of safety. Many leaders, when put in a ...

In Leaders East Last , Simon Sinek provides reference to a Circle of Safety.  Our biology hasn’t changed in fifty thousand years, but our environment certainly has. Today’s workplaces tend to be full of cynicism, paranoia and self-interest. But the best organizations foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a Circle of Safety that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. The Circle of Safety leads to stable, adaptive, confident teams, where everyone feels they belong and all energies are devoted to facing the common enemy and seizing big opportunities. - Amazon Summary In the past couple of organizations that I have worked in, there has been no circle of safety -- only a ring of fire.  How do you know when there is no circle of safety?  You can't speak to leaders with candor without instigating defensiveness.  Leaders are more concerned with the impressi...

The days of working 30+ years in the same organization are over -- and it's not because the Millenials are taking over.  Large organizations reorganize more than ever in an effort to make the numbers look good. As a result, your political alignment today now becomes a political alignment of yesterday.  Many people would love to believe that promotions happen through demonstration of merit and added value.  False.  Climbing the corporate ladder is paved with height, hair, an ability to BS, and lack of real business acumen or content-- in general.  Find the company that puts the people before the numbers, as Simon Sinek says, and you'll find loyalty and stability.  Unfortunately those companies are few and far between. 

Why are your employees your employees? Why are your customers your customers?  These are two questions - among many- raised in Simon Sinek's Start With Why. If organizational leaders took a few minutes to ponder these questions and answer them, what do you think the answers would be?  Some companies don't even have a why. They just have a what and a how.  Even more depressing is that employees don't have a why. They also just have a what and a how. If the answer to your why question is to collect a paycheck, then reconsider the question.  Sinek says that collecting a paycheck is merely the result. Ask the question again. Why are you doing what you are doing to collect that paycheck?  For most of you, I'd venture to say that the answer is the sound of crickets.