When it comes to defining what
is impeding your organization’s progress and holding back your people from
realizing all that they are capable of achieving, Ralph Waldo Emerson summed it
up as well as anyone ever has.
His observation was that “Most of the shadows of this life are caused
by our standing in our own sunshine.”
As human beings, you and your
people have the innate ability to simply get in your own way. All too often,
the biggest obstacle that is holding back your people in their life and work
are their own self imposed limitations.
As a leader it is your direct
responsibility to bring out the best in your people. In like fashion, you are also
charged with the additional responsibility of improving performance,
productivity and efficiency.
Yet, just like your people… You
as well struggle to keep up with the demands of the day and allow your own self
imposed limitations and bad habits to impede your personal performance.
A few years ago in his popular
comic strip Pogo, cartoonist Walt Kelly poked fun at this aspect of life while
at the same time addressing the matter head-on when Pogo said to his troops “We have met the enemy… And he is us!”
The continued forward progress
of your organization is dependent on two primary prerequisites; leadership that
can engage and people that are capable of achieving peak performance.
People only achieve success
when there is someone to show them how to succeed and subsequently provide them
with the support and encouragement that they need in order to succeed.
Concurrently, your people need
superiors who lead by example, for it is by the specific example of
demonstrating the organization’s standards for excellence that will provide
your people with their most powerful source of influence to do the same.
Albert Einstein aptly addressed
this process when he stated “Setting an
example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.”
While your organization has
great potential, it will never get to the next level until such time as its
leadership addresses the obstacles that are currently impeding the
organization’s progress.
The Leadership Academy… Changing the way organizations and people
work, perform and live.
Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank | All Rights
Reserved.
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