Disappointment

Disappointment is such a heavy word as it coveys all the feelings that come along with it.  The pit in your stomach, the sadness, that gnawing feeling that you should have listened to your gut, etc.   I don’t like being being disappointed, but it is a part of life.   I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this feeling.   Moreover, nobody likes to be disappointed by their leadership.  This is something I take very seriously in my role.

 

I’ve lead teams at major corporations for the last eleven years.  When you talk about leadership, two important tenets are equality and fairness.   If you hold your people to different standards, you will falter as a leader. Actually, you will fail as a leader.  Nobody will have respect for you and ultimately your results will reflect the inequity and unfair practices.  For me policies and procedures are agnostic to performance or tenure.  While this is common sense it isn’t always widely practiced.

While these tenets apply to leadership in a corporate environment, they also apply to schools, sports organizations, organizations like the boy scouts.  A lack of equity or fairness in leadership is much more insidious when it impacts our kids.  While life is certainly unfair, it emboldens bad behavior.  Unfortunately, due to poor leadership, some kids or players think that they are above the rules.  As a result, they are woefully disrespectful to everyone.  This isn’t a recipe for success.

Ultimately, these types of leaders create an environment that lacks accountability and respect.  They may enjoy short term success, but ultimately the culture will lead them to failure.  This type of leadership creates an unsustainable environment.  In addition,  people that are treated unfairly learn to be honorable in the face of dishonor.  Moreover, they learn resilience.  Ultimately, they move on to new organizations.  

As I said above, life isn’t fair, but that’s not what this post is about.  This post is about leading a team or an organization honorably, which creates a high producing environment.  I witnessed a lack of leadership this evening that was  disappointing.  Truly, it was the same story last weekend.   However, change is always on the horizon.  Don’t be the type of leader that creates misanthropic kids or employees or an atmosphere rife with disrespect.

Tonight’s song performed by Offspring is “The Kids Aren’t Alright.”  Offspring’s debut CD was also one of the first CDs I bought.  Moreover, this is one of my favorite songs from the late 90’s.  It is also one of my kids’ favorite songs.  The Mayor had two hockey games at home today.  I was able to play the music today, so I chose a 90’s theme in honor of Delores O’Riordan.  What’s your favorite song from the 90’s?