1. If you think cascading organizational goals via power point or pontificating in townhalls will align employees to objectives…you’re disqualified as a leader. Aligning people is not only an intellectual exercise. It’s the business of the heart, of emotionally connecting colleagues to purpose and one another.
2. If you think gathering team members for a happy hour or picnic builds the bonds required for a high-performing team…you’re disqualified as a leader. Strategy execution is a social process where peer-to-peer accountability occurs in the flow of work. Friendships don’t drive performance; relational capital does.
3. If you think empowering employees is the simple act of providing them with the autonomy to make decisions…you’re disqualified as a leader. Employees must first be deeply aligned with their managers and colleagues before they make decisions. If they’re not deeply aligned, employees make poor decisions—or no decisions at all. (Both of which trigger the ire of disqualified leaders.)
4. If you think hairline fractures in alignment between leaders at the top of an organization can be tolerated more than a day…you’re disqualified as a leader. Seamless organizations require deeply aligned leaders. A slight fracture at the top of an organization is a compound—and devastating—rupture at the bottom.
5. If you think sharing data that communicates the mediocre performance of employees will cause people to change their actions…you’re disqualified as a leader. Data doesn’t change minds and actions; friendships and colleagues and communities do. Mobilizing hearts and minds requires collectively drawing meaning and insights from shared data.
Your title doesn’t qualify you as a leader. Nor does your position, education, experience, or your relationship with the CEO. Those criteria don’t matter when fatigued employees feel forced to labor in systems where their efforts, intelligence and heart are consistently suboptimized.
Qualified leaders are those who align the full energy of their organization to increasing the flow of value to the customer.
Dear leaders: Show us you’re qualified.
