Leadership Between the Lines

I was recently in Costco with my daughter. We stocked up on water, TP, her favorite ice cream bars, that extra kitchen gadget we absolutely had to have (and more things that weren’t on our list), and we headed to the checkout.

We stood in line. It was packed. Lots of people loading up their baskets with water, TP, and ice cream bars. Everyone seemingly in their own worlds. On their phones. “Killing time.” (I don’t love this phrase. Do you?) Waiting out the line. Not a lot of presence, connection, or intention happening in the grocery store line.

It was our turn. I handed my card to the guy and asked him to do two separate rings. He asked me for two cards. I was confused.

Heads up, my friends! This is a completely new style of blog post—one I’ve never written before, but one that needs to be written because I so want you to know about what’s coming around the corner. For those of you who know me, or who’ve been close to me this last year, this will be a recap and update. For those of you new to me…thanks in advance for celebrating this milestone with me, for coming to this site, and for participating in this work in whatever way you do. It’s an honor.

You're an awesome person. A great leader. A fantastic collaborator. Super smart... Fabulous. You use your time well. Lead your energy. And manage your money with intention and rigor... Wonderful. You want to do more good work. Have even better relationships. Be more inspiring. Attract more meaningful partnerships into your life... Lovely. How's it going?

In my work with business leaders and their organizations, the majority of them want to avoid "hierarchy" in the organization in as many ways as possible. Many of them are highly successful at doing so. They set structures in place to create more of a "flat" organization, they get clear on organizational values, and they get very intentional about the culture they want to create. While the reporting structure may have a hierarchy to it (this structure can be an intentional system that supports culture vs. hinders or lids it), the goal is to have a collaborative and peer-oriented mindset with non-hierarchical behaviors.

When I do IEP (Intentional Energetic Presence) Cultural Assessments for companies, I go in looking through the lens of "What's the energy of the company?" What's not being said? What's going great/where are they super strong? What needs attention? And where might possible blind spots be that may be creeping up, especially as they grow quickly and on-board more people?

In the first column of this series I talked about shifting your culture's mindset from "j.o.b.s" to "callings" and tapping into purpose to energize, fuel, and bring out the best in your people. In part 2, I talked about shifting your culture to a healthy mindset of collaboration and competition. This week I'm talking about the most important thing you have in an employee: their personal level of accountability and nourishment. In order to innovate into 2020 (starting yesterday) we must cultivate a culture that allows for, and inspires, a greater level of accountability and nourishment than ever before. Our future literally depends on it.