In the ABCD of
life, both Birth and Death are inevitable and beyond our control, but there are
'Attitude' and 'Choice' before and between which can make or break us. Although
Attitude is overrated (90%, you know!) and Choice is a freewill if not luxury, what
matters most is the Habit and when it is 'Old' it dies hard, they say!
Leadership
expert Elizabeth Lyle offers a new approach to breaking the rules (and old
habits!) sharing creative ways how middle managers can climb the corporate
ladder while by challenging the way things have always been done.
"I believe
there is a window of time in the formative middle-manager years when we can lay
the groundwork for that kind of leadership, but we're missing it. Why? Because
our future leaders are learning from senior role models who just aren't ready to
role model yet, much less change the systems that made them so
successful..."
"Organizations
are evolving rapidly, and they're counting on their future leaders to lead with
more speed, flexibility, trust and cooperation than they do today..."
"We need
middle managers and senior leaders to work together to define a new way of
leading and develop each other to rise to the occasion..."
"The
command-and-control behavior that she was once rewarded for just isn't going to
work in a faster-moving, flatter, more digitally interconnected organization.
What got her here won't get her there..."
"But what
we find is that they're often doing the best job at not rocking the boat and
challenging the system because they're trying to impress and make life easier
on the senior leaders who will promote them..."
"...our
role models are in behavior boot camp right now, and our work environments are
undergoing unprecedented disruption. We are systematically changing just about
everything about how organizations work, but by and large, still measuring and
rewarding behavior based on old metrics, because changing those systems takes
time..."
"Either he
inherits an organization that is failing because of stubbornly old-fashioned
leadership, or he himself fails to build the capabilities to lead one that
transformed while he was playing it safe..."
"I work
with another senior client who summed up this dilemma beautifully when we were talking
about why he and his peers haven't empowered the folks below them with more
decision rights. He said, "We haven't done it because we just don't trust
that they're going to make the right decisions. But then again, how could they?
We've just never given them decisions to practice with."
"That is seriously hard mentorship to provide, and even the best leaders need help doing it, which is why we need more coaches coaching more leaders, more in real time versus any one leader behind closed doors..."
"Around 20 years ago, Warren Buffet gave a school lecture in which he said, "The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken..."
