Was reading the paper today about the state budget. Like most municipal budgets it is in the red and cutbacks are coming. The tired cliche of doing more with less was in the article. I hear that applied to corporate America all the time too.

Here is the problem, your people are totally sick of hearing it. Many reports indicate they are looking for a new job. They are tired of it and are fried from doing it. They don’t really have much more to give UNLESS you do more….More leading, that is.

In this case you can actually DO less if you lead MORE. When you exercise and apply more of the principles of leadership your employees generally respond by being more efficient and more effective. In other words they actually do more and there is less for you to do…besides lead or maybe do more things that make you more important and valuable for the firm. The point is you do not get paid to do, you get paid for others to do. They do this when you manage and lead. So, you get to do less because you are leading more.

Let’s go back to Okemo and look at Kevin. Had he, and other employees, mishandled the situation we may be very dissatisfied. In an extreme case we might even consider suing the mountain. Certainly there would be alot for management to do at that point. But Okemo created the atmosphere for Kevin, and others, to deliver great service.

The other day I asked if your organization had a Kevin. It might but that might just be a lucky hire.The bigger question is this. Is your organization creating Kevins? The way that happens is when you stop doing and start leading.

Not sure where to start? My book NO YELLING has 9 principles. My new book (as yet untitled) has 26 words to lead by. In other words, there are plenty of opportunities for you.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 18th, 2011 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.