Do you know who you work for? Surprisingly, you probably don’t.
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Eventually most people get asked the question: “For whom do you work?” It seems like a relatively easy question to answer. During most of my previous professional life I would have answered, “I work for ‘X’ [company, business or academic institution].” The answer was also the place that provided me my main source of income. I am sure many, if not all of you, would answer in the same way. The problem lay in the fact that I believed this answer to be true when I became a team leader. What I didn’t know in the beginning, is that a good team leader knows that he works directly for the team and indirectly for his employer.
This concept was supported one day while I was listening to Marie Forleo interview Barbara Corcoran. They discussed building her business, its ultimate sale, and her life thereafter. For those of you who are unfamiliar, in 1973 Barbara Corcoran co-founded the Corcoran group which grew to be Manhattan's second-largest independent residential real estate company. As its sole owner, she sold it in 2001 for $66M. In her interview she indicated that she always believed and acted as if she worked for her employees and not the other way round. However, the latter is traditionally how leaders and organizations across sector behave. As rewards they provide employees; distrust; lack of loyalty; tolerance; easy replacement; conniving; and demands. What if the paradigm were shifted, and leaders worked for their teams and organizations expected as much? What’s stopping everyone? Fear, and the inability to know how to really do it. Regarding fear; no frontline employee will or can give the gifts listed above that are dolled out by diseased workplaces. No matter how hard one tries, you cannot forget where you fall on the organizational hierarchy (unless you come from a culture that doesn’t place much emphasis on it).
Yes. Leaders working for their teams is a rare concept, one that demands new thought processes and learning. It is possible. My newsletter and training products can get you there.
Leaders working on behalf of their teams is a win, win, win for everyone involved. Everyone’s happier. Teams are more innovative, faster problem solvers, more helpful to one another and customer needs; all while increasing the bottom line (if there is one). Who wants to argue with results like that? Only crazy people do.