Have you ever seen the movie Braveheart? Mel Gibson's character William Wallace is an excellent example of what I'm talking about. He was "out in front" of the army of men he assembled to fight for freedom. The men were willing to risk their lives partly, at least, because Wallace was willing to risk his. He didn't hang back and expect his men to do the "dirty work." He was willing to do the dirty work himself. He … [Read more...]
They Is We
The 5th Leadership Fundamental
The older I get, the more I realize the number of pet peeves I have. For the most part they are pretty useless; they don’t really do anyone any good. They just bother me and nobody really knows anything about them. Here’s one, though, that I think has some merit … I really hate it when a member of management refers to “management” as “they.” I remember when I first went to work for Comcast. I was leading a … [Read more...]
Eliminate Fear
The 4th Leadership Fundamental
I still remember when I first heard about the concept of “driving out fear.” It was 1987 and I was a Production Supervisor. The company for which I was working (Micro Motion, Inc.) was beginning to embrace the “Continuous Improvement Process” (CIP). Gene Perkins, the President of the company, had read the book Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming. Reading this book and beginning to embrace Deming’s “14 Points” … [Read more...]