Cube 2.14 Blog

CAN YOU LEAD OTHERS WITHOUT PASSION?  
 

If someone  does not love what they do, get energized by developing other and is always looking for the next challenge are they a leader or just taking up space? Occupying a position that might be better suited for someone that really….cares.

We all have bad days. Moments when we would rather throw the brick through the window than have

One
more
meeting….but

As leaders aren’t we more than that?

Can we ask the people we work with to be

ALL IN

if we can’t give it100% each and every time?

Probably not.  Leadership isn’t just an activity or a title.  Its a responsibility.  

The people on your team are watching you.

Who are you going to be?

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

By definition, you can’t fake authenticity. To be “authentic” is the very antithesis of fakeness – it means doing and saying things because you believe in them from the bottom of your heart.
 
A lack of authenticity (which by itself is a characteristic of a bad leader) is something you can spot from a mile away. Inauthentic leaders are the people who bark orders but never set foot in the trenches, the people who want authority for appearance and status, instead of a noble cause like driving innovation or problem solving.
 
It’s more than that, though – it’s not that leaders who lack authenticity are necessarily selfish or bad, it’s that by and large, nobody wants to follow them.
 
Instead of leaders who aren’t helping or inspiring their teams, you have “leaders” who are ignored – and if the leader is ignored, what’s the point of having one?
 
On the other hand, truly authentic leaders often become leaders by default. Their authenticity often places them in leadership roles – people recognize their passion and honesty, and naturally gravitate to them.

There are no tricks to being an authentic leader. Instead, you just have to be authentic.

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

People, on average, work for between 3 to 5 really bad bosses or managers (not a scientific fact, just based on my nonscientific study of asking people I know). Each one has their own unique qualities that make them awful. The important thing to learn from them is how not to treat people and how not to lead.
 
I learned some very important lessons from my very first bad manager. Although there were probably hundreds, there were three that have stuck with me until today.
 
TAKING CREDIT FOR OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK IS BOTH UNETHICAL AND JUST PLAIN MEAN.
 
As a recent college grad, I had ideas about everything, wanted to do a great job, and prove my worth.  On my first project, a colleague and I revamped the process getting new consultants on-boarded from two weeks to 2 days.
 
• Saved the company thousands of dollars per new hire
• Clients got consultants that were able to impact projects much faster.

It made such an impact that a few key clients wanted to hear about how our organization made this happen.
 
My boss asked us to put together a presentation detailing our solution and review it with her. We did.
 
She asked us to write out Speaker’s notes “to help us when we get nervous during he presentation. We did.
 
The following week she delivered our presentation to the client in a meeting she had set up. We weren’t invited. During the meeting she did not mention that her employees came up with the ideas. In fact, she said she did all of it.
 
She was promptly given accolades and the opportunity to work on a big new client effort. The new client wanted her to implement a process to speed up on boarding. Since she hasn’t done the previous work herself, it didn’t go well. She was shocked when my colleague and I refused to help her.
 
Moral – Don’t take credit for work that isn’t your own. Someday someone will ask you do something similar. You will fail and no one will want to help you figure it out. 
 
ASKING SOMEONE FOR THEIR OPINION AND THEN TELLING THEM THAT IT’S WRONG DOESN’T MAKE SENSE
 
At our team meetings, our boss would regularly ask our opinions about her ideas or approaches to solve problems.  If we had opinions that didn’t agree with hers, she would tell us that our opinions were wrong. Not that she disagreed, but that we were wrong. She would then spend the rest of the meeting commenting on why our opinion was not correct.  After a few meetings, we stopped giving our opinion all together.
 
Moral – if you are asking for input, you can’t disagree with everything that is different than what you think is right. That’s not leadership that just proves you are insecure. 
 
LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT BUILDING PEOPLE UP NOT BREAKING THEM DOWN.
Linda was notorious for dressing people down in public. She wasn’t a yeller, but would talk about mistakes you made to everyone in the office…while you were sitting there.
 
When I confronted her about it, she said she was trying to motivate us. “If you stop making mistakes, I will stop making fun of you.”
 
What? That works for grade school friends. But, doing that will make adults refuse to try anything that might lead to ridicule. It will END innovation.
 
Our team turned over 100% in 8 months.  Linda resigned.
 
Moral – Leading is about treating people BETTER than they expect.
 
I learned valuable lessons about how NOT to treat people. Linda made me a better leader and really appreciate the folks that I had the privilege to lead.
 
Working for her helped me see:

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

(Powerful leadership lessons are learned from everywhere.  In a sporadic series of blogs, I am going to explore the people that taught me those lessons.  Some will be expected, others may not. Thanks for reading!)
 
My mother was the daughter of a tobacco farmer from rural North Carolina.  She was the 10th out of 12 children.  It was unlikely, based on her childhood, that she would have a career of her own, let alone leave North Carolina.  But, my mother isn’t like most people.  She is strong willed and determined.  Some of her friends call her a force of nature.  My father was a larger than life figure, but my mother was never engulfed in his shadow.  Instead she was able to make him better and have even more impact.  What I didn’t know was how powerful she is. In the 20 years after my father’s death, I have had the privilege to see what a difference she makes with others every day.  Although there are many, there are  three big lessons about being a leader I learned from her.
 
LESSON -LEADERS AREN’T VICTIMS OF THEIR BIRTH PLACES, THEY ARE THE CREATORS OF THEIR FUTURES.

My mother should have been married and with child before she was 18.  That is, if she followed in the footsteps of her siblings.  She decided that was not to be her. She was going to make her own way.  My mother put herself through nursing school, refusing to be just like everyone else.  She read everything she could get her hands on.
 
After leaving North Carolina, she only went back on her own terms.  Since she left she’s:

• Had dinner with the President of the US
• Met Ravi Shankar
• Hosted dinners for hundreds of dignitaries
• Traveled all over the world
• And so much more
 

She didn’t and I never do.  
 
 
LESSON – LEADERS DON’T LET PEOPLE PUSH THEM AROUND 

My mother led a rebellion.  She and her neighbors led a revolt to free themselves from an oppressive co-op board.  She was threatened, ridiculed and openly harassed. Not only did that not intimidate her, it mad ever will stronger. She rallied her group and stood up to board. And she won. In the end, her neighbors saw her as their champion and the board, albeit reluctantly, saw her as someone not to be trifled with.
 

My mother’s profession was nursing. She was the champion of the downtrodden and stood up for people when ever she got a chance. At 4 feet 11.5 inches tall, she cast a long shadow.  I remember her stopping people fighting, standing between a man and woman he was trying to intimidate and sticking up for people getting treated poorly in restaurants/grocery stores.
 
When I was a kid, there was a boy who lived in our neighborhood that everyone picked on.  (No it wasn’t me, that happened in High School). One day my Mom saw  some of the boys at the bus stop were roughing him up.  She told me, you need to stand up for him.  I didn’t understand why, but the next day I did.  It wasn’t easy but for some reason I felt so much better after I did.  My friends didn’t make fun of me when I took a stand. Instead they followed suit and the boy that was picked on became on of the group.
 

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.