Leading Nowhere?

Did you see today’s Dilbert? I highly recommend getting the app or just looking here. It’s where cartoonist Scott Adams holds up a mirror to leaders and challenges us to look at reality.

This morning, the point-haired boss (PHB) tells his R&D team that he has an upcoming meeting with the CFO and will be competing with other departments for budget dollars. PHB complains that the other departments will have an edge because they are all staffed with professional liars. Dilbert, the hapless, but honest and hardworking engineer, has a hard time buying into that. The dialog goes back and forth, as one by one, PHB names a department – marketing, sales, PR, finance, legal – and Dilbert is driven to agree that they are staffed with professional liars. In the last panel, PHB gives Dilbert a chance to try naming one himself. Before he can finish getting ‘human resources’ out of his mouth, he concedes defeat.

If you want to play leadership as a team sport, you can’t afford to have anyone on the team who isn’t a good team player. That means you need to start with whomever you entrust to get you good team players. Often, the HR function isn’t seen as critical to the success of the company, and often, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – or worse. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Remember, it’s your team, and as such, you are the ‘chief people officer’ of it. Think in terms of the human infrastructure you need to achieve your vision, and make sure that anyone you entrust with bringing on your team members s also a great team player.

Then you can lead in the direction you want to go!


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