MIchael Hyatt recently quoted Tony Morgan on a post titled “10 Easy Ways to Know You’re Not a Leader“. At first I was very interested, and then I realized that the post was really pretty disappointing.

You see, it’s really pretty easy to explain to people how to tell when things are bad, when they’re not a leader, how to tell they’re not getting it, etc. In fact, I think if you removed all the blog posts out there that had “How to tell…” in the subject, some blogs might not even exist. Yep, I’ve even done it myself.

Anyway, as I read the post, it occurred to me that the intent was less to help folks become leaders than to explain to those who would be leaders why they aren’t cutting it. I can well understand the urge, but wouldn’t it be better to teach than bitch?

So, if asked, my eleventh item on this list would be “You like to point out what folks are doing wrong, because it’s a heck of a lot easier than showing them how to do it right.”

Better yet, convert the list to something like “10 ways to be more of a leader.”

Here’s the original list, along with my conversions:

1. You’re waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision.

Let’s make that: Show what you can do with what you have, and use that success to get more. You’ll never have everything you want, so get going in whatever way you can, and always communicate two things: What’s been accomplished, and how more could be accomplished with more resources.

2. You think you need to be in charge to have influence.

You don’t have to be in charge to have influence, and being in charge is a huge distraction anyway. Instead, develop a clear vision, learn to communicated it with speed and clarity, and do exactly that every chance you get. Influence is about having a good sensible plan and repeating it to those who need to adopt it.

3. You’re content.

Don’t be content. Exceeding expectations is what will set you apart. The key thing to remember is that it’s not always about giving more of what was requested, sometimes it’s giving what was asked but using less to do it.

4. You tend to foster division instead of generating a helpful dialogue.

Sometimes it will seem like the purpose of business is to drive each other crazy with misunderstandings, obstruction, and other politics. But success comes from getting people aligned, not from keeping them distracted. I believe that this is one of the hardest things for anyone to do consistently.

5. You think you need to say something to be heard.

Honestly, it’s hard not to see this statement as condescending and trite. I suppose what’s meant is that you have to lead by example. It’s not always what you say or write that will matter, but how you deal with problems - like situations in #4 above.

6. You find it easier to blame others for your circumstances than to take responsibility for solutions.

Nothing feels better than explaining, in detail, all the things that have made life difficult. Because it feels so good, there’s no shortage of people who can do it, and thus folks don’t need to be paid to do it. Like to the adage says, if it feels good it’s probably the wrong thing to do. Instead, take each obstacle in turn and find a way around it. As you consider each one, each time you start to tell yourself that you’re stuck because…imagine the because doesn’t exist. Forgiveness is easier to get than permission.

7. It’s been some time since you said, “I messed up.”

Hiding your mistakes is like planting land mines at the end of your driveway. It’s not if you’ll get burned, but when. Admitting your mistakes, along with what you’re learned, will get you more attention from good leadership than almost anything else. If it doesn’t, you need to find a new place to work.

8. You’re driven by the task instead of the relationships and the vision.

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Complete a task by using people with no foresight, and you’ll be successful that day. Complete a task by building relationships and communicating the vision, you’ll build success for the future as well as today. You’ll also save yourself a lot of work down the road.

9. Your dreams are so small, people think they can be achieved.

This is nonsense. Unreachable goals exist in the eye of the beholder and simply divide people. Saying that YOU believe they can be achieved doesn’t help much.

Instead, dream big, build a vision, and show people how it can be achieved. Their first reaction should be that’s rediculous, but if you don’t change their minds you’re going nowhere in a hurry. Break it down if necessary, but always be prepared to help overcome people brainstorm the obstacles. If you can’t do that, you’re not dreaming you’re fantisizing.

10. No one is following you.

OK, you’ve been diligently doing all of the above, and folks just aren’t following you. There’s only one thing you can do - talk to them and find out why. Your vision may be flawed, you may be expecting too much from the organization, or you might just not fit. But you’ll never really know until you ask.

powered by performancing firefox

Des Walsh make a great point in response to my last post about IT departments being “Business Suppression Units.” He suggested that the solution “shouldn’t all be one way.” He’s right.

John Wonders, the guy who runs LinkedinMilwaukee and who’s also a crack IT guy who made the point that often it isn’t IT but upper management that’s the obstacle. Another good point.

Here’s what’s worked for me in getting things set up outside the usual bureaucracy:

1. Learn what you’re talking about. You probably do already, but before you go charging to IT claiming that it will take only “5 minutes” to install that new blog that will save the department/company/etc, make sure you’re right. You’ll still be wrong, because good IT people will always build things to a higher standard than you or I will, but they’ll know you weren’t too wrong.
2. Be realistic about your needs. I’ve started several blogs and wikis at QuadTech in the interest of solving various problems, only to discover I’d dramatically over estimated the desire and savvy of my user base. That’s why I just host things on my desktop until the usage justifies more hardware. The goal is to get something started, that can grow and demonstrate, not to build the perfect solution.
3. Take responsibility for what you’re doing. Don’t be a pest, and don’t expect IT to pour time into supporting your bootstrap project when you could be supporting yourself.
4. In general try not to be someone who needs a lot from IT. This means not being the person who let the virus in, and not storehousing gigabytes of mp3s on your desktop, and doing anything else to raise their ire.
5. Be persistent.
6. Don’t begin until you have a vision of what you want and can communicate it, and the benefits, clearly and concisely.
7. Work to understand IT’s valid concerns about security and privacy, and take them into account.

A lot of this new technology is scary to people. Heck, the very idea of free open source software is still a mystery to most business people - they can’t understand how it can be sustainable - and that makes it even harder to buy into.

What’s needed are people who have the vision and persistence to help their company leverage these new tools. If you can be one of those people, so much the better.

The other day I was listening to the only podcast I listen to, Total Picture Radio. Peter was interviewing Bryan Eisenberg from Future Now and what really caught my ear was his use of the phrase “…their business suppression[1] unit was keeping them from making the website run the way it should…” The guy went on for a bit and then used the phrase again. Peter interrupted him with “…business suppression unit?” and the guy said “Yeah, their IT department.” He was making the point that a lot of bad web marketing is the result of IT department influence.

IT department = Business Suppression Unit

It’s very sad, and probably offensive to many IT people, but whether by accident or by design, it’s often true.

Dr. Joe Webb, a well-known guy in printing circles, is an odd bird because he writes a blog in an industry that is a bit backward where the web is concerned. Not only that, he’s a Linux user as well. Yesterday we were trading a few emails on Linux, the future of Microsoft and Office, and the future of productivity software in general. I’d sent him a link to my renegade IT post, and he wrote something very interesting in a comment he left:

for quite a few years now, small businesses and microbusinesses have all kinds of cool tools that big company workers do not. skype, instant messaging, ftp sites like yousendit.com are godsends to small business
people but strike fear in the hearts of IT managers. this is one reason why graphic arts vendors and printers themselves are don’t understand what new media are and what they can do… they’re not allowed to use them in their own companies. unless they have a teenager at home, they have no inkling of how the industry is being undermined.

As the days get nearer toward companies being more virtual than actual, how will these businesses be affected?

A recurring theme on TPR is how different Gen Y’ers are from Boomers and Gen X’ers. They multitask more, they treat information differently as well as relationships, and they have a lot of norm-busting views on the workplace and how work gets done. Gen Y’ers are slowly taking over the workplace, and it’s clear so far that they’re going to be used to a lot more access and power at their fingertips than many IT departments allow.

Another recurring theme is that between the pool of retiring Boomers being so much larger than subsequent generations, there’s going to be a real labor crunch.

If you put this all together it means that IT departments are going to be facing a wave of employees who just aren’t going to be satisfied with the current levels of access and support. They’re going to want more access, more performance, and a greater ability to innovate autonomously.

As all this is happening, the run-of-the-mill value that IT is used to supplying, like user support, file storage, office apps, email, and calendar are being more and more easily outsourced. If new value isn’t being created, what kind of alternative to outsourcing will in-house IT be?

So, if you’re an IT guy and you’re wondering how to deal with this coming conflict, what to do? Here are some ideas:

• Find and embrace the power users and early adopters in your company. They can and will (may already be) go around you to find solutions, but they can be your most powerful supporters because they can help bridge technology and business.
• Create sandboxes people can play in. Machines here and there that have unfettered access to the internet, that people can use to try things out and find new solutions. These machines can be isolated to reduce the risk to the network at large.
• Talk to your users and find out what they want - what have they seen that they could really use.
• Create an internal web hosting service, just like folks can buy on the net, but for internal use only.
• Remember that what created IT departments in the first place was the need to exploit new technology to improve the business. Have you brought anything new to the table recently? I’m not talking about stuff that protects users or reduces costs or increases control, I’m talking about new value for your customer. You need to be looking for this stuff and trying it out.
• Consider allowing people to use software like XAMPP to try out applications like blogs, wikis, and other web-based applications. These apps are nice because they’re free, inherently multiuser, and usually enterprise or near enterprise class.
• Last but not least, review your policies for rules that are the result of a few abusers. Maybe you had a user who spent all day instant messaging his girlfriend, but does that really merit an enterprise-wide ban? Consider different policies for different classes of users.

Every day people are inventing cool new apps that can make life easier, bringing with them new fears and challenges for those who being IT to the desktop. We can either embrace and leverage this innovation, or keep it at bay and deal with the consequences.

[1] Turns out I mis-remembered the quote - he said “business prevention units…”