POWER--FROM YOUR GIFT OR FROM YOUR EGO

We talk about the need for level five leaders as described in GOOD TO GREAT by Jim Collins.  They are to be humble about their top role while ambitious for the company.   

I absolutely advocate that top leaders use their gifts fully.  No hiding them under the proverbial basket.  Let them shine.  Be as powerful as you can be using your particular talent.  Enjoy what you can get done.  Stand out.
Be exceptional.  Lead with verve.

But don't be blind to your ego who just loves to keep the focus on you.
The ego that is greedy, selfish, and dominates others.
The ego that won't let other people win.  The ego that thinks you are sooooo
unique and special.  The ego that begins to love to be served by others, that enjoys being catered to.  

It's a thin line between having powerful gifts and using them fully and being driven by an ego to be in a dominant role of status.

How do you know when the line has been crossed?

Gift power focuses on the job to be done, the art to be created, the result 
Ego power focuses on positioning and protecting the self.

Gift power like to share the gift, teach the gift, include others in the use of the gift.
Ego power likes to keep anything good for itself.  It is stingy and doesn't share.

Gift power thinks the gift is special.
Ego power thinks it is special.

Gift power enjoys the work even without reward.
Ego power only works for the reward.

Gift power is exceptional
Ego power is common


Symptoms of when your gift power is sliding into ego?
You are scared when someone achieves something extraordinary.
You pull positional power too often
You remember someone who has pushed back on you and look for a time for pay back
You expect to be served by others whether it's to go get coffee or to relieve you of the burden for preparing for a meeting
You begin to believe your own spin.




  

HAVE YOU BROKEN A PROMISE YOU DON'T THINK YOU MADE?


As a top executive, if you are lucky, you have more people ready for top
spots than you have spots.  If you are very very lucky.

Regardless, you are trying to keep a pool of people happy enough to hang around until you make a final choice of who to place in a top job.

And so it is tempting to semi-promise or declare support for more than one person for a position.  It's not in writing.  There is no formal promise.
But there are moments of overt support after a job particularly well done or over enthusiastic performance reviews or confidential collegiality over drinks.
It's also tempting to give over compensating words to a direct report after a professional disappointment.
It happens.

You think you are giving subtle indicators of possibilities for the future.
Your direct report and valuable future exec thinks you are making a kind of promise.

At the decision moment, someone will feel, at worst betrayed or at best, poorly treated.  Don't be blind to the harm you cause with pre-mature innuendo of future promotion.  It's not the way to keep high potentials or to keep them fully engaged.

The solution is a very clean and transparent promotion process which often gets to be a too relaxed process for top positions.  

Have you made promised you can't keep?  Do you have a pristine promotion process to prevent promises and betrayal?   Don't be blind to the power of every word and innuendo you put out into the workplace.  People do hang on your every word.  After all, you are the top power person. Your words make things happen.

WHAT COST EXCELLENCE??

WHAT COST EXCELLENCE?


I've been wondering about the cost/benefit ratio of  striving for excellence.
I know, I know I know all about the grandeur of human endeavor.
But I see families, sports teams and businesses pushed to a limit that doesn't add much value.  The rivets are ready to pop.

Strive strive strive.
Push push push
Grow grow grow

Take drugs to do it.
Ignore your family to do it.
Ruin your health to do it.
Be unethical to do it.

There seems to be a point of diminishing return here.
Excellence means to be extremely good.
How about just good in every sense of the word?

BEING SLOW TO LET A COLLEAGUE GO


Facing the fact that a colleague of officer level person needs to leave
the company is tough.  It can be avoided for too long.
For all kinds of reasons:
You may have hired or promoted the person.
You have skin in the game.
You may see only the best of the person's behavior.
You may be the last person to be informed about a problem.
It takes time for the gripes and gossip and poor behavior to reach you attention.

Don't be blind to the drag on other officer's energy or the dent in the company's integrity or your reputation as gullible or duped.

People looking up sometimes see things sooner and clearer than you do.
Listen and probe.  
Check all the boxes of basic good people practices with your HR exec.
Then act.  It will never feel comfortable.