Sic Semper Tyrannis

Kill the King

Passed OverIn 2000, I was hired as a VP for a small agency.

The President was looking to retire, and I was the natural replacement. He was a big-picture person, and so am I, so in theory, it made sense, but in practice, it created a bottle-neck in succession. I never stepped into the CEO role, because he was still operating in that capacity. He never stepped aside, because he never saw me acting in that role. My deference and reluctance to take authority prevented him from seeing me as a viable successor.

The Cautioner’s Tale

If your boss doesn’t see the leader in you, they will look elsewhere.

Doubting my ability to take on the “mantle of leadership”, the CEO went outside the agency to bring in someone else. Granted, there was plenty of blame to go around, but my part is that, in not wanting to step on anyone’s toes, he saw in me as not stepping up.

Part of your job is to replace me—to make me redundant. Unless I think you can do that, am I going to give the reigns over for what has been my life’s work?

The Moral to the Story

Leaders can’t help but sink in to things they shouldn’t get involved in.

If there’s a hole in the boat, it is up to you to get there first, because if the captain is below deck fixing a leak, we will all drown. (Note: if the captain doesn’t know there’s a hole in the boat, the result may be the same.)

Leadership Abhors a Vacuum

What got you here will not get you there.Failure to delegate is the #1 reason new

leaders fail. And it’s a common failing of leaders, even experienced ones. So don’t wait for your leaders to empower you, because that’s just not a typical human behavior.

Leaders Aren’t Born…

At a minimum, do not defer the hard decisions to the boss.

Nobody wants to be the bad guy all the time. And neither is it good for the organization when a leader is forced into being a constant nay/doomsayer. We know when there’s a hard decision to be made, usually well before the CEO does.

Share the Wealth & the Burden

Keep going it alone, and you’ll find that’s what you are.

Being decisive is not the same as “going rogue”. Even if you are the CEO, there’s still a certain amount of consensus that you need/that is wise to build for the long-term success of that decision. Leadership is inherently about other people.

What do you call a leader without any followers? Someone out taking a walk.

Neither a Rogue nor a Cowboy Be

Play with Live AmmoPilot-Schmilot!Unusual success comes from continually

pushing beyond our limits, which by definition means that we have to fail (perhaps many times) in order to ultimately grow and succeed. It has been estimated that world-champion figure skaters fall on their behinds a minimum of 10,000 times before becoming world-champion figure skaters.

Fail Forward

Give the boss an inch, and s/he’ll think s/he’s in charge.

This is not the same as an outright coup—it’s more a matter of anticipating where the boss is going to go, and getting there first. The boss sets the target, but they should not be involved in figuring out the best way to get there.

Don’t Give an Inch

Don’t worry who is in the big chair…it’s just a chair.

Just because I’m the leader, doesn’t mean I know best…it just means that people wait for me to tell them what to do. What would you do—for our mission, for our agency—if there was no one to ask permission of, and no one to be held accountable, but you? Go and do THAT.

It’s Just a Chair

Where does the King reside? In our minds. Just like I have to kill the king reflected in my

boss, you have to kill the king reflected in me, which is to say, you have to kill the construct of the king inside your mind.

Back to Our Story…

Well, do ya?

Do You Feel Lucky?