If your preferred political choice these days is "none of the above," rest assured that this is not a symptom of apathy or indecision, but most likely a sign of robust mental health. Get ready for some uncomfortable truths, and some practical advice about what we, as leaders, can do about political and cultural polarization.
My client was feeling uneasy as we reviewed some confidential all-employee comments that had been collected after a recent town hall event. Most of the comments were unwaveringly positive, focusing on the crisp strategic focus and improving execution that had become noticeable since my client took the reigns of this large firm.
It was a cold night at the Louisville airport, two years after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I was standing in a taxi line-up waiting for a ride to take me back to my house in Prospect, KY – an ordeal that could last more than an hour when there was any hint of snow on the local roads, as was the case that night. This was all part of my life at the time as a GE executive at Appliance Park.
When I was growing up at GE in the early 1990s, Jack Welch used to write thought-provoking letters to shareholders that were often quoted and debated. One year he wrote about a topic that sparked a lot of discussion because it called out one of the most vexing questions in an organization – what to do about the difficult employee who achieves fabulous results year after year.
When I attended business school in the 1980s, the idea of work-life balance was just beginning to be debated. Our convocation speaker, a well-known European CEO, used the occasion of our graduation to launch into a Napoleonic tirade disavowing the idea of balance in the executive suite.
How can you tell the difference between truly great leaders and wannabees? Just look at their track record of driving real and lasting change in their organizations. Nothing else is so vexing or so important in our complex and ever-changing business environment.
At a first meeting with a new client my impression was of a woman at the top of her game – a fast moving executive who had sailed past peers to achieve the top role because of her technical expertise, strong drive and impressive ability to rally people around her and get things done. As she told her story, brimming with confidence and pride, she caught herself and asked, “I’m not some kind of narcissist, am I? I just think that I’m really good at my job.”
First the good news – Boards, CEOs and executive teams are taking employee engagement more seriously than ever. This can only be a good thing, particularly for people like me who grew up in a world where “human resources” were viewed as variable costs – to be added or deleted as required (I recall a senior manager at a large international company describe his employees as lemons – he said that his job was to squeeze and squeeze the lemons until there was no more juice, and then to throw them away!).
