A leadership of service… roll on the big resignation.

I have been working for many a year now, and I have realised that leadership is best plated as a dish in service of others…

It is best when that service is aimed at the majority and not the minority. 

Great organisations get the ‘facing’ direction correct. Mediocrity is for all the other workplaces that have a value placed elsewhere. The company’s that exceed expectations are the ones that are united in facing towards the vast majority of the people.

However, in my experience over the years, I have always found that leadership is constantly aimed upwards to the service of their superiors. The apparatus of most organisations are facing towards appeasing the upper echelons of management. 

Middle management is the worst for this—the bloodsucking, goal setting, must achievers who sit in that outlying seat at the top table are the people who convert everyone back to the – it is all about the performance and the money – rhetoric. They have their gums chomping out the poison of ‘every penny counts’, while eyeing the top table with their hand on their combat knife.

The majority, the workforce and the customer, are often last on the pecking order of focus for the business. They are seen as a by-product of the organisation instead of the very reason for the organisation to be in existence. 

Customers and the people in your organisation count a lot more than you think, and the connection between them is what often pays the wages of the many. They are what everything should be aimed towards in your organisation. All your advertising spend, your new merchandising direction, your website, direct mailing, training and development, your financial investment and capital expenditure should all be aimed at making that connection sparkle with excitement and, in turn, to create returning owners of your product.

Getting that part wrong because you made it all about the money is a slippery slope, and we all know it, but very few people have the talent to stop that slide because they are too busy looking upwards to their boss. 

The change is coming.

This is why I am so excited about the big resignation. I see that the everyday people are taking back some of the power. I am not sure how long this will last, but with great excitement, I watch workers stick their two fingers up to the crap organisation and then take their valuable commodity of ‘time’ elsewhere. 

The greatest satisfaction is reading the stories of middle managers who have not caught onto this yet but who are in the throws of mistreating their staff, and the moment quickly turns against them. The on the spot retaliatory resignations are a blessing in disguise. Lessons could be learned from careful reflection at this point, but there is never any time given because the rat race goes on… 

The grovelling of the middle manager often follows the resignations. The middle manager knows that the extra shift they have just lost the cover for because of their bad leadership will be covered by none other than themselves.

It is the leadership style of the daft.

But how long will the worker have this gift of power?

People are taking back some control. Make the most of it because it won’t last forever and if you are in the position to sell your time to a better, more honourable bidder, then make that move.

Do it now while the iron is still hot and the bosses are looking in your direction and not up at the man above.

You have the audience.

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