Untouchable !

Are you an untouchable. What do I mean by untouchable. Have you placed yourself so high up on the pedestal that no one can reach you. Do people have to jump up and down to get your attention……. Have you put yourself out of the reach of the people around you, the people who know and understand the details of what you are responsible for? Being untouchable, may give you comfort, but it is also making you unreachable and putting you in a very, VERY vulnerable position, “DISCONNECTION”. As a leader in your section, division, department or organization you rely daily on your team, whether you have 2 people or 200, or maybe 2000. You need to stay connected to your team, to the web of information and services within your operation and your organization. Have you ever given people permission to ask you the tough questions. Have you ever given people the ability to challenge you, challenge your thinking, your strategy or your approach. Some of you may be saying, “who is this crack pot, and why is he such a lame leader”. “You need to get in there and tell people what to do, the way it is, make them snap to attention.” Well, to be blunt, that approach doesn’t work any more ! Yes you need to lead, yes you need to be definitive, staying focused on the goal, tell the truth and drive for the results, but gone are the days of dictatorial Dan and his band of merry men. You need to be a leader and you need to lead with passion, AND, you need to give your power away. What was that saying, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Anyone disagree with that ? No, didn’t think so. Time to give away your power, time to give the people around you the ability to challenge you, to ask you the tough questions. So how does it feel when this happens, well lets hope your team is doing this productively, moving you and your team in a positive direction, not destructively, not insubordinately. If your CEO said, here, take all my organizational authority and power for a day, what would you do? Giving permission to those around you to challenge you, to ask the tough questions means that you are more concerned

about the cause and the organization that about your own power and control. It builds over time, this trust relationship, step-by-step, day-by-day, you model it for your team and encourage people to share their power. To be vulnerable, take the risk, move yourself from disconnection to connection.