"Blame Displacement"

Blame displacement is identified by Ed Friedman in his one of the main symptoms of a chronically anxious system. When organizations or companies respond to challenges in ways that are defensive instead of adventurous a "vacumn" of leadership can ocurr. Chronic anxiety becomes a "hot potato" that gets handed off to whoever will take it. Intead of addressing the underlying emotional dynamics of which the anxiety is a symptom, individuals seek to avoid personal responsibility and place blame elsewhere. A chronically anxious system is the opposite of "the buck stops here" as a policy. The answer is not on placing the blame where it belongs, but rather on each leader taking responsibilty for their own functioning and holding others accountable for theirs.

First, get a million dollars! Then...

I confess a weakness for "pathetically stupid" comedy. Animal House, Naked Gun 2 1/2, National Lampoon's Summer Vacation; you know the type. Even after 20 hears and hearing his jokes again and again, I still find my funny bone especially vulnerable to the humor of Steve Martin as he stands on stage with an arrow through his head.

One of my favorite bits from Mr. Martin involved him being a "success coach" and giving financial advice; "Yes, you too can be a millionaire and NOT pay taxes!" With cavalier confidence, the direction continues - "First, get a million dollars; Then..." It never fails to make me laugh. I think what strikes me as so funny about this is that, in giving his sage advice, he completely glosses over the hardest part.

A lot of advise for leaders found in many of the books and seminars today are like this joke. The "million dollars" - the hardest part of leadership, and the part that takes the longest amount of time is completely glossed over. Most "how to" guides on organizational development completely ignore or at least quickly gloss over the most important quality of a leader - maturity. Without this quality, all the technique in the world will be in vain.

Some things, important things, take time. They are worth slowing down for and cultivating daily over a long period of time.

Once you "get a million dollars; then..."

No Time for Losers?

A friend sent me this Dilbert cartoon last week. At first glance, it appears to depict an insensitive (if not abusive), cynical and close minded boss (read "leader"). The more I looked at it however, the more it struck me as not a bad example of true leadership.

Before anyone wastes their time "flaming" me in this blog, let me state a disclaimer: No employee deserves to be called a "loser." Leadership is not an excuse to be abusive.

With that out of the way let me explain what I see in this vignette by way of true leadership:

1. The leader refused to accommodate to what he considered to be a waste of his time. (it is done in a rather cruel way and we are not given anything worthy that this leader might do with his time).
   
2. The focus isn’t about accommodating the “needs” of others. It is focused on what the leader needs. You can’t lead effectively unless you are squarely focused on YOUR OWN needs. This is the only accurate data you have for feedback. (and the most accurate data you have within this dataset is the information coming from your body) Everything else is guesswork. I don’t advocate for a lack of awareness of the needs of others but I do observe that it presents a focus that pulls the leader out of touch with self and forces them to operate according to their internal “guesswork” of what the other person really needs.
   
3. The leader refused to get caught up in symptoms. (Ok I know this is a stretch but I wat to make the point jus the same.) The needs expressed by others are often not a real needs. They are often symptoms of a deeper need. The leader will not see the “need behind the need” unless he/she is squarely in touch with his/her own needs. Lack of awareness of one’s own needs blinds one to the true needs of others and forces the leader to “chase after phantoms” – symptoms that keep shifting and become like a shell game, never allowing the leader to truly be successful. The leader’s usual response to this is to try harder, to be a better guesser, to be more sensitive. This only feeds the cycle, wastes more energy and further demoralizes the leader. The leader finds himself/herself on a "leadership treadmill" with no way to gain significant ground.
   
4. The actions/decisions of this leader are not reactive to external data. He is internally driven by his own authority. A leader who is focused is likely to be accused of being closed minded.
   
5. This leader cannot be held hostage by having to accommodate the immaturity of others.

Make no mistake about it. Leadership involves perversity!