When your team tells you that you and your partner have a P.R. problem, the truth is that you have a problem. Public relations has little to do with your problem. When one of your team tells you that most of your team thinks that you don’t care about anything but the money, you have a real problem. Period.
Leaders that we follow with our committed best, model the way, embrace uncommon pain and suffering, and embody the truth in LOVE. So simple and so HARD.
Today, I encountered one of my clients that is really good at spinning “some kinda shit.” He’s so likeable that he gets away with it most of the time. He’s as winsome a man as you would want to meet. He just is.
Today, as we listened to one of his team tell him the unvarnished truth, he responded that he felt that this P.R. problem was a “blindspot” for him. He somehow seems to not be tuned into the pain around him. He’s blind to what his team is feeling and he wants to work on changing that. This all sounds really good. Blindspot illuminated.
Blindspot eliminated.
WRONG.
This is not a blindspot problem. This is a belief problem. My client doesn’t believe nor does my client value that personnel problems are more important than all the other problems that dot his to do board. The people problems are always at the bottom or simply missing from the list. This is NOT a P.R. problem. This is a real problem. This is a belief problem and won’t be fixed until my client changes his deepest held beliefs about the value of being “with” his team, understanding his team, being unproductive on purpose, being a builder of his best, being tuned into the bottom and not tolerating mediocrity, and putting his people ahead of his paycheck.
Few leaders, this side of Heaven, understand that people are worth more than the leaders paycheck. Most leaders don’t have a P.R. problem, they have a belief problem. Most leaders just want mo’.
Mo money, that is.
These leaders don’t have a P.R. problem. These leaders get exactly what they deserve. Funny, last time I checked, it’s not enough. Money, that is.
Never is.
Why do you live and work?
What’s your paycheck compared to the lowest paid person in your system?
If, as the leader, your pay is more than 5 times the lowest paid person, Plato would want your butt trimmed. If your pay was beyond 20X of your lowest paid person, Plato would want you butt cut in half. AND, if your pay was 400X the lowest paid person in your publicly traded company, the world would want you to know that you are about average. Are you kidding me?
Nope.
God, help our leaders to change their deepest held beliefs about their people.
God, help me help them…
BUILT TO LEAD 