Delivery.
'When I was an undergraduate I was given this advice and it has helped me in my writing, so I will pass it on to you. When you have almost finished your paper and think you have a final draft. Find a quite place way from others that read it out loud.'
- An academic.
Your Widget may break during delivery.
Check.
To check whether your boss wants Leadership or management, try any of the following and see what she does:
- Disagree with her in a meeting.
- Answer 'I don't know' when she asks what someone else is doing.
- Delay reporting to her because you were teaching someone else.
- Answer 'I don't know' to any of her questions.
- Say 'I was wrong'.
Most organisations simply don't have the metaphorical and literal structural tolerance in their people and systems to withstand the amount of turbulence that would flow from having as many Leaders as they proclaim to want or allow.
Which is why most organisations advertise and train for leadership - and recruit and promote for management.
Promise.
'We've just listened to you explain how you went about doing what you did,' the Plaintiff's barrister asks the Respondent Promise Maker in cross-examination.
In courts and tribunals today, the same exchange will occur in some form.
'Yes,' the Promiser answers.
'Can I ask you to look at this document?'
'Yes.'
'Do you recognise it?'
'Yes. It's the Contract of Employment/Agreement/Thing I Promised To Do.'
'I'll take you through your Promise and make you say out loud the things you Promised to do'
'I'll then take you through the laws that you also Promised to follow by virtue of being a citizen'
'I'll call five witnesses to produce forty two documents that will prove what you actually did.
'I'll then summarise in excruciating detail the gap between your Promise and what you did.'
Sit in the public gallery or read any transcript or reasons for judgment online, and this is the story arc that will almost always unfold. A journey from Expectation to Reality.
In the year that I asked more than 500 new employees at each induction session how many had read their employment agreement - the Promises made between them and their employer - only one said that they had. Among those new staff would have been new managers.
When organisational conflict arises we call HR to show them the pieces of Promises we've laid out and they show us the picture on the lid as we nod and smile and tell ourselves they match.
Good decision making is honouring our Promises.
Answers.
'You only have the answers for things that don't matter.'
- Peter Block
You don't say 'I don't know' too often and keep your job.
We're paid to Know.
People rely on us to Know.
There is little patience even for I'm Not Sure.
Which means our Widget doesn't matter.
Could this be why only 13% of the world's workers are engaged in their work?
Or why only 7.5% of workers consider themselves productive?
I'm not sure.
Appearances.
He ended his written complaint with 'Thank you for appearing to care'.
Brilliant.
He knew the difference between our Weekday and Weekend Widgets.
Do.
'You've pointed to the fact that I'm a complete business fraud. My only qualification is to look at music. I learned a lot of what I do in Management from Music.'
Kim Williams, CEO News Limited.
Not 'How I manage'.
Or 'management'.
Or 'about management.'
Or even 'in managing'.
(Not a word about 'Leadership' either.)
Instead: 'What I do'...in Management.
Words matter.