Page 217 - Make Work Great

Leading Your Crystal

The Same Thing I Do Every Day
To some extent, most of us have participated in the “grass is greener
over there” myth of leadership and management. We stand at our
level of authority—whatever level that may be—and look with awe at

the managers, leaders, and influencers above us on the organizational
ladder or ahead of us in pay and responsibility. Whether or not we’re
striving to achieve those positions personally, we tend to suspect that
those who are there have “arrived.” Life there is somehow different,
better, and easier than it is here.
When we do “arrive,” reality rarely equals the fairy tale. Man-
agement and leadership at every level are diffi cult and fraught with
potential land mines. Greater pay is nice, no doubt, but it typically
comes with enough additional responsibility that familiar doubts
about inadequate compensation quickly return. The learning curve
that teaches us about the new position also strips away the awe and
mystery, so in the fi nal analysis, our escalated status is just another
job—better in some ways, worse in others.
The same is true for your evolving role as a culture builder. When
you fi rst start to move from member to contributor, the role of defi ner
seems distant, unattainable, and perhaps even a little magical. In
reality, though, it’s nothing of the sort. It is merely the next logical
step in the progression. Keep practicing your disciplines of overtness
and clarity, and you’ll get there eventually. And, for better or worse,
your “arrival” will be no arrival at all, just the gradual increase in
your output and infl uence based on the repeated practice of your
discipline. As your default patterns of behavior change, the change
in precedent influences the patterns of those you work with. Viewed

over time, as in Figure 9.1, the change is noticeable, both in you and
in the people and patterns around you. But on a day-to-day basis, it
won’t seem like much at all. The only way to really appreciate the
changes you’ve made will be to look back after six months or more
on what is new with you and your environment.

In fact, much will be new. When the influence you exert has grown
to this level, you’ll be faced with new opportunities, new challenges,

and many new questions. Issues of power, influence, group dynam-

196