#donthinks

The 3 Levels of a Leadership Island

In my last couple of posts, I shared that the best way to Defy Corporatism is to build a subculture, a Leadership Island, where your team is empowered, aligned, and protected from corporatism. I also shared the four practices needed when building a Leadership Island (Matching Outer to Inner Leadership, Being Pragmatic, Taking a Bottom-Up Approach, and Leveraging your Authority). But, what is a Leadership Island?

A Leadership Island has 3 levels:

Breakwaters create and protect the team’s culture and identity. Leaders monitor (and personify) the breakwaters. Isolating the team’s Differentiators is an example.

Seawalls are the fixed structures of the team’s operating model. Leaders reinforce the seawalls. Regular and Meaningful 1-1’s are an example.

Sandbags cover the shifting gaps between the seawalls. Leaders adjust sandbags based on the changing environment. Fair compensation policies are an example.

To create and protect their Leadership Island, those who strive to lead must be able to operate on these three levels.

Defy Corporatism: Build a Leadership Island

In my last post, I shared that there are no “silver bullets” to combat corporatism. Believe me, I looked. What I did find was consistent reinforcement of the principles and methods of proper leadership. This reinforcement took the form of four practices you should follow when putting proper leadership in place. If you follow them, you build a Leadership Island for your team.

Building a Leadership Island is establishing a subculture where your team is empowered, aligned, and protected from corporatism. The four practices to build a Leadership Island are:

Matching your visible behaviors, routines, and structures (Outer Leadership) with your explicit and simple personal leadership model (Inner Leadership). Your outer leadership must adequately reflect your inner leadership to preserve your leadership integrity.

Being pragmatic by focusing on the minimum outer leadership required to stay true to your inner leadership. Resist the temptation to be perfect to maximize the probability you make an impact.

Committing to a bottom-up versus a top-down approach. You can counter corporatism where you are today.

Taking initiative because you have more authority than you realize. You do not need permission.

Those are the practices needed to build a Leadership Island. But, what is a Leadership Island? That is the topic of my next post.

No “Silver Bullets” for Countering Corporatism

In my last post, I shared my definition of corporatism (Bureaucracy, Short-termism, and Declining People Leadership). For the last three years, I have been researching and thinking about how one can survive and even thrive in the corporate environment.

In today’s increasingly decentralized and tech/AI-enabled world, I wondered if there was a “silver bullet” for countering corporatism. I talked with leaders I respect in my network. I pulled the thread on the latest management innovations. In particular, I went deep into decentralized teams (self-managing teams).

What is Corporatism?

Last week I described corporatism as a dragon.  But, that is not quite right. The image of a dragon is easy to visualize. Corporatism is different. It is formless and takes many forms. It has infected everything. Corporatism is like the Borg from Star Trek.

Before you can counter it, you need to define it. After much consideration, I think corporatism may be simplified as three things:

Bureaucracy: Ever increasing productivity obstacles.

Short-termism: Near-term financials increasingly driving all decisions.

Declining People Leadership: Growing belief that managers do not care about their teams.

Don’t forget about the second dragon

I like the analogy casting a big challenge as a dragon to be slayed. Today everyone is talking about the AI dragon. How can we adapt to the massive disruption? What opportunities will be created? We need to understand the AI dragon so we can slay it.

“AGI, clean your room and get a job!”