Unaverage Leadership

A New Day In Employee Ownership

Many of you may be contemplating the sale of your company.  One way to transition your company is through employee ownership, specifically an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan).

This transaction has tremendous tax advantages for the seller and for the company once the transaction is completed.  Another upside to employee ownership is that it spreads the wealth of the company to everyone who has helped build the company.

If these points appeal to you, I would encourage to explore the world of employee ownership.  The following websites will link you to organizations that offer information and education about employee ownership.  I encourage to explore these links and the information they contain.

• www.esopassociation.org
• www.nceo.org
• www.kent.edu/oeoc
• www.esca.us

Flickr photo by maco

Concensus or Chaos?

Your day begins and one of your key management people informs you of a policy change.  The day continues and another management person informs you of the policy, but states that they totally disagree with the decision.  By the end of the day the rest of the management team has informed you of the policy change, but another management member tells you they disagree with the policy.

Soon you are thinking, what a bunch of idiots.  They make a decision and then tell everyone they disagree with it.  You are not alone with this way of thinking.  To many companies have not developed their leadership teams to a level where they fully support decisions.

If this scenario is prevalent in your organization, you have some serious issues to deal with.  Issues need to be debated, discussed and disagreed with.  Once that process is completed and the decision is made, then the group backs the decision 100%.  If it is not 100%, then I guarantee you will have organizational chaos.

This will allow those "thorny people" in your organization the opportunity to thrive.  They will see these differences and use them to back their own agenda or use them to try and topple a key management person.

Be sure your decision making teams in the organization have laid the ground rules for how they support decisions even if they disagree.

Flickr photo by rstrawser

Control Freak

The opportunity is now... this is the greatest opportunity for your company to grow and evolve.  It seems obvious, people talk about it, others are putting forth the energy to make it happen. 

Yet, lurking in the dark shadows of your organization is the evil and ever present control freak. 

In many cases it is the owner, the president/ceo, or some other key person in your organization.  They may be liked, they may be hated, but either way they want to control everything.  They believe that without their input the organization will go into a downward spiral of chaos and destruction.

The key to understanding control freaks is that in many cases they suffer from the following traits - lack of self confidence, trust no one, lack balance in their lives, can only find meaning in their work, have no vision, and in some cases they can see nothing past their ego.

So what does one do when a control freak is present?  Pray - for some that may be the answer.  When dealing with control freaks, you must consider that their behavior is an attempt to protect themselves - something that we all do in crisis.  One key is to maintain your own self confidence with a quite and purposeful measure.  Your own control is a key tool when dealing with the control freak.  Hold the course until you can no longer stand the storm.

Flickr photo by Paul

Organizational Readiness

Is your organization ready to pounce when the time is right?

In highly evolved business cultures, the business is in a continual state of readiness. Just like the fox, the business has focus, energy, and a plan to pounce when the time is right to ensure success.

Does your business struggle to handle; opportunities for growth, when a key person is gone due to illness or death, or even struggle when someone takes a weeks vacation?  If these points ring true, then you have some serious work ahead of you.

Yes, you need a plan - business, strategic, operational, etc...  Too many businesses go through some type of planning process and yet they continue to miss the mark.  Why? 

They fail to have the tough conversations that need to happen before any planning can be done. Tough meaning - everyone avoids a certain person, failure to follow through, consistency in words and actions, lack of knowledge or common sense, lying, respect towards co-workers.

Make your list of tough conversations and start acting on them now.  Nothing is going to change until you make the effort. Pounce on the tough issues and your business will be ready to pounce on opportunities.                                     

Flickr photo by Neil Phillips

We Want Change!

The storyline...The leadership of the company decides that change is needed to provide growth and a better working environment. 

The employees, in their beautiful capacity of being human want to believe that the leadership means what they say.  A handful of the management group truly buys in to the concept.

In the early days the company initiates some fun and exciting events and speeches.  There are even a few significant steps taken that draw the employees even further into the belief that change can occur.  The chatter in the company starts to change, people are beginning to shift.  Change may not be so bad after all - it feels like a warm summer breeze.

Then the cold blast of inertia sets in.  The believers look around wild eyed at this sudden shift and they ponder - where does it come from?

It comes from the top dog.  They led the pack on the initial killing frenzy of change.  All the easy kills have been made and feeding the pack becomes a task of huge magnitude.  So what does the top dog (leader) do - they go back to the same old thing.  They retire back into their cozy world of routine and comfort.  The leadership that began the change pulls an about face and starts the retreat back to their cozy world. 

If you are a believer in change (it is worth following this link), please remember that if the leadership of the company does not believe, you are fighting a battle of insurmountable odds.  The energy that you put forth in creating change will most likely be lost and that my friend is a tragedy.  You may  recognize yourself in this description - a good person, but they have no stomach for change, and they have accepted the reality of what the leadership of their company has created.  They operate at a sustenance level.

To the leaders of change - follow through on your commitments and do not waste the energy of so many good people.

To those of you who stay and watch these cycles over and over - take the time to evaluate why do you continue to stay?  If you can not answer this question easily, then you have not spent enough time thinking about it. 

Flickr photo by lady[experiment...