If I Could Change One Thing
Updated: Mar 12, 2022
Look! Our First Post! This has been on my heart to do for a while! Ok so what is this blog all about? Here I will give my thoughts and experiences towards leadership and taking care of our people.
Ultimately, I would like this to be a start of change. Big Change. Because I think we need it. This change will be how we as leaders view our responsibilities, people, and organization. I hope to connect with like-minded leaders, spread the word of what I believe, and ultimately create widespread lasting change.
I think I'll tackle the first question:
If I had a superpower, and I could instantaneously change one thing in leadership, what would it be? What would your choice be? This thing you pick will impact all leaders everywhere. Well, what is it?
My pick:
I would change how leadership views their people, organization, and objectives. I need to give a bit of an explanation of what this looks like. I call it "Tribal Leadership".
That's a weird description. I know. I get it. It isn't my words, I'm not nearly that creative. If you were to get a cross-section of my beliefs, I'm a blend of Simon Sinek, Seth Godin, and John Maxwell. The term, "Tribal Leadership" I first heard from Seth Godin in his book "Tribes". It really hit home. It gave voice to many beliefs and observations I had in the Navy Submarine Community that I served.
What is "Tribal Leadership"? Let's dig in. Tribal feels like the right word because it describes the level of connection and commitment the relationships are in an ideal state. Its deeper than what most of us experience. I like the posture of it. Leadership takes care of the tribe. The tribe members work together to take care of the tribe. Very simple.
Errr...How is this different than now? It's different because it acknowledges something that is an inconvenient truth for many of our leaders. It's that we have full blown, full on, lives outside of work. I like it because when we zoom way way WAY out. We know, the significance in our lives is likely not found in only our work. Looking at our team as the "The Tribe" changes the lens. Now an individual's welfare is more important. Now I see the human that accomplishes the work.
Lets talk about the next level truths: This is the experience part. This is the trial, error, observation, feedback, implementation, tweaking, real world experience part. Life and Leadership has taught me:
TAKING CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE TAKES CARE OF EVERYTHING ELSE.
Look. Leaders aren't the doers. We rarely directly participate in the money making activities(at least we shouldn't be). Because of this, we serve the following functions:
Leaders amplify their people's capabilities
Leaders are Problem Solvers
Leaders are Vision Casters
By taking care of our people, we greatly amplify their capabilities. Which in turn greatly improves the organization. By meeting our peoples needs, we enable the best version of themselves go home. It sounds lofty. I get it. Have you ever had a really shitty day at work? I'm talking like on a 11/10 of bad. How much energy did you have? Where did the rest of that energy that you had go? Back into the kids? Chores? Basic Adulting? Look heres the real deal. Many of us have gone really long periods of bad. Months. And Months. When we were in that place, would meeting our needs impacted us? ABSOLUTELY!
If I could change one thing, I would change how leaders viewed their people, organization, and objectives. I would want them to be the "Tribal Leader".