What a relief! A leader who make sense

In this crazy cray-cray world, it's relieving to hear a leader explain what’s going on, talk about what we need to do about it, how it will be ok, even if there’s a challenge up ahead.

A leader who’s not sugar-coating it, bluffing, boasting or waffling on. They're not making it about them. They're frank and practical about what’s going on.

And there’s an empathy and an understanding there too.

It’s a subtle mix yet a powerful practice. And it’s relieving because it is honest, helpful. It reduces our uncertainty, relieves some anxiety and helps gain our buy-in for a new future.

✋ No more Me Monsters

✋ No more Chaos Conveyers

✋ No more Status Seekers

✋ No more Blah Blasters.

Workplaces of today - and the humans in them, creating value for the customers and clients they serve - need leaders who make sense.

Bid farewell to these four pesky characters. They’re no longer required as part of your contemporary, engaging, inspiring leadership.

Q: Who did I miss? What other bad movers are there, leaders who DON'T make sense? 

"You probably can’t read this slide but ..."

How often do we hear this from a leader at a conference or meeting. It’s blah blah ... non-sense.

After the wall of data comes clichéd statements, oh and those quotes from Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and Henry Ford!

When leaders are speaking it soon becomes clear whether or not they’re making sense.

The ‘Blah Blaster’ - here with 3 mouths! - is the leader who waffles on and on, losing you along the way.

Baffling with data and details or sharing screens of spreadsheets you can’t see, these leaders, speakers and presenters don’t make sense and in turn, don’t help us make sense.

Too much detail.

Missing the point.

Or the point is buried.

Making sense isn’t just about doing presentation skills training. You’ve got to help people work out

🌕 what’s going on, and

🌕 what we need to do about it.

More words don’t make more sense.

The status seeker leader

Continuing a series of posts on leaders who make sense - or in this case, don't!

Leadership is about elevation, lifting others up, not putting them down. Even if a tough topic needs talking about, a leader who makes sense makes the environment feel safe anyway.

Many leaders play status games and are unaware they do it. They try to make themselves feel better by being right, better, showing they know it all.

Compliments get turned into criticisms, praise isn’t passed on, and success gets stashed not shared.

Status seekers feel like shite and they share that shite around. (And yes, this character I've sketched looks like a poop-emoji. Unintentional originally, but oh-so suitable once I noticed it.)

Making others feel shitty is a dirty tactic; it’s hurtful and unnecessary. These leaders don’t make sense! What they say can be in contrast to how things really are. We know politicians like this when they're said to be 'removed', 'tone deaf' and ’not living in the real world’.

Leaders in chaos create more chaos

Beware the 'chaos conveyer' leader. "They’re all over the place," was a description I heard from a team recently. Whether they’re hyped up on too much coffee (or energy drinks), lacking sleep or overwhelmed with too much of everything, the chaotic leader rarely makes sense.

They're described as ‘intense’; they interrupt, are impatient, shut things down and can have a distorted view of time, deadlines and scope. Then.... zzzzing! They're out of one meeting and dashing to the next, out of control.

The danger is, their chaos creates more chaos.

Their mood, energy and character creates uncertainty and chaos. No wonder people disappear and disengage; it’s all too much!

It doesn't make sense because they don't:

🙀think

🙀prepare or

🙀manage their state ... before lurching into a leadership situation.

They're often 'winging it', and not in a good, creative way.

Volatile times require leaders who can bring sense to situations, no matter what’s going on.

The GRRRRRRR of the 'Me Monster'

In these crazy turbulent times, it’s not easy to communicate information to others.

We can be dealing with complex information ourselves, struggling with new systems or concepts, learning new things. And the people we need to reach with our communication can seem disconnected, disengaged, distracted (and potentially displeased with what’s going on in their world of change and turbulence). Not the most receptive audience!

Comedians know about the challenges of an audience who seems ’tough’. Comedian Brian Regan suggests we avoid being a ‘Me Monster’; you know, making it all about yourself. Check how often you say 'I, me, my, mine, I, me me me me me me me-aarrrrrgghhhhh' - that’s the Me Monster.

Not good: too much about you, needs to be more about them.

So it goes that leaders who are able to 'make sense’ in these tricky times make the information about others, not themselves.

That's leadership right there.