Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

…as long as I could pick the part of my anatomy that was shot…

There’s a very short llst of people for whom I’d take a bullet. Why? Because, while we haven’t always agreed, they’ve always treated me with respect and caring. In some cases they’ve been clients and bosses. In others, I was the client or boss. All comes down to relationships (and no fussy-wussy, faux consensus-building group hugs required.)

I was recently talking to a friend/client (one of the guys on my list) about leadership, management, innovation, etc. re how how many people - in both “leader” and “follower” positions just do not grok the basics.

People flock to seminars, buy boatloads of books, pay consultants huge fees - and then go back to their self-defeating, risk-adverse behavior, afraid to break out of the sheep pack. (Otherwise, Tom Peters would have done - oh, say - five speaking gigs and his career would have been done 20 years ago. Instead, he’s still out there, still trying to show people the light. Doc Searls would have never written The Cluetrain Manifesto, much less now be talking about Clueship. Seth Godin would be bookless. And so on.)

The basics:

If you’re in a leader position:

1. The title alone does nothing for you. You earn respect. You act in ways that create loyalty (and yes, love.)

2. You let people speak up, in fact you encourage it. And, you sometimes let them win, even if you don’t agree. (See #5 and #6).

3. You give people room to f*** up on their own….and then don’t beat them bloody for failing. You move on to the next challenge.

4. You’re not afraid of people disagreeing with you. Debate is healthy.

5. You realize you may not always be right. (This was particularly difficult for Aries control freak me.)

6. You realize you’re only as good as the people that work for you. You actually want people that are smarter, or more experienced in some area on your team. Then, you get out of their way.

7. There’s a crucial difference between being confident and being certain.

(NPR Interview, via Venture Blog) “…Albright said that she would rather have a President who was confident than a President who was certain. She noted that a confident President could take principled positions and stand for things that mattered, but would still have the good sense to listen to those around him and take counsel from a range of brilliant advisors. In contrast, a certain President would have no need for advisors because the appropriate course would be ‘clear to him.”

Read More: Entrepreneurial Success According to Paul Graham and Madeline Albright

If you’re in a follower position:

1. You’ve not abdicated responsibility for your actions. It’s up to you if you do a good job, a great job…or just show up.

2. You do speak up, when needed. (Yes, that can hard if you’re working with an empty suit, blowhard “leader” but you have to try. Otherwise, you’ll be both soul and brain dead.)

3. You are willing to take the leadership role when required.

4. You don’t ask for responsibility and then freeze up, since you’re out of your comfort zone. (Yes, you may fail. And, if you spend your entire life in your comfort zone, you’re gonna be pretty bored…and probably in dead-end jobs.)

It really all comes down to simple, common sense and common courtesy. Unfortunately, such things are often neither simple or common.

Who’s on your bullet list? What do you think works? Leave a comment below. I moderate all comments, though, so it may take a bit for your comment to show up. Thanks for reading!

Want to browse through all my posts? Go to The Idea Pool. Everything I’ve written since I started blogging.

Tags: management, leadership