Finding Leadership Balance

Leadership is sort of a mystery. It can lift you up. It  can bring you down. One thing for certain, it will always keep you on your toes.

Leadership can be very conceptual and, at times, I find it hard to get a thought from my head into something clear that I can articulate to others.  I value it when I found others who are able to do that for me. Micheal Wade's post on leadership communications did that for me today in Finding the Leadership Balance between Filtering and Revealing. 

Personally,  the line I find the most valuable is the one I will keep in front of me always from here on out:

Wise leaders understand that there can be discreet disclosure; the type that gives a sense of the rationale behind certain policies without revealing the dirty details of management slug fests that may have prefaced the decision. These leaders disclose reasoning, not personalities.

Professionally, Micheal provided me with insight, not to mention a great discussion and coaching outline for others. Thank you Michael.

Leadership. What a Ride.

Leadership is not for the faint of heart. 

"The vast majority of learning occurs on the job; and, despite their best intentions, managers do not take advantage of 'coachable moments,' when instruction has the greatest impact."

Harvard Business Review, July-August 2008

Do you know a coachable moment when you see one?

As a leader, people will come to you to let you know when they make a mistake. In many cases, you will determine (in a split second) that this was not a mistake of carelessness. It was not a mistake of haste. It was a gap in knowledge. You will determine that learning occured and are comfortable that the same mistake will not happen again. You listen. You nod. You send them on their way.

STOP - Coachable Moment!

Did you see this coming?  I missed this recently. Although I did not see it in our 60 second conversation, I later heard how upset someone had been by a mistake they made. I did not stop what I was doing long enough to provide her the opportunity to process this with me and, in this case, that would have been very valuable to her. 

These coachable moments, they go both ways. 

Believe it or not, there is going to be a time when you discover that someone is not doing something you thought they were doing, they way you thought it was being done. You communicated your expectation, yet the follow through was not what you had in mind.  Bottom line, someone was not doing what they should (!) be doing." I will go find that person and set this straight," you say.

STOP - Coachable Moment!

Think about the reasons why a reasonable person would have done whatever it was that was done.  I did so recently. This is not the first time this type of concern has been expressed to me. A little concern raised here, a little venting there, all part of day-to-day  business in a crazy department. The concerns usually come and go and are soon replaced by other things. This time, however, this one is staying with me. 

Why? Because I may be part of the problem. Through my communications, I may be creating the space for the one thing that really bugs me , pass and drop responsibility. Yikes.

In any given moment, a person is faced with a variety of options and in the face of these options, makes a choice. I expect them to make the choice that is consistent with what we said we were going to do and how. I expect them to defer on the side of doing more vs. doing less. I expect them to follow an action through to completion.

My expectations are precise but, at times, my communications are not.  They will be.

Leadership. What a ride!

Cross posted at HRM Today

How to Sleep Nights

Good leaders worry about their people. Good leaders worry about their part in employee dilemmas. Good leaders lose sleep at night.

I don't know about you, but I hate conflicts at work. I, like the Chief Happiness Officer, have come to realize that conflicts are inevitable. The very best and most efficient workplaces are not the ones without conflict, he says, but those who handle conflicts constructively. For me, handling conflicts constructively = resolution. Now, how often does that work for you? Knowing that it doesn't work that way (it should, shouldn't it?) doesn't make sleep come any easier for me. 

So, what's a good leader to do?

Jean A. Hollands, the author of Red Ink Behaviors, offers this advice: good leaders will sleep well if they plant a seed. Good leaders will sleep well if they remember that they, too, are only human. Good leaders will sleep well if they do the best that they can; have their own support team; and appreciate their own courage. 

Good leaders want to make it right. Good leaders, even the best leaders, can't always do that. So, plant a seed. Have a good night sleep and come back at it in the morning. Or not.

Cheap Beer, Lousy Food

What do mountains of ice, helicopter flights, dog sled rides, crab baskets and white whales have in common? How do you describe native people to a seven year old? How do you help her get excited about something she has little to no reference for? Pictures, of course. So it was with that thought that we bought our daughter a travel guide with tons of pictures in preparation for our upcoming Alaskan cruise. Two months and 8 days until we sail to Glacier Bay.

Wow, the pictures are fabulous and there is nothing like it to help a 7 year old get her head around the concept of a mountain of ice.  She has a few special pages marked already: the Eskimo girl being tossed in the air (can I do that?); the Glacier Bar outside of Fairbanks where you can get a Coke (or Martini) in an ice glass while sitting on an ice stool at the ice bar; a grizzly bear holding a salmon, and a restaurant with a sign out front that reads, "cheap beer, lousy food." Hmmm, sounds promising little girl! Looking through the guide lately has provided me with the break I need at the end of the day.

Some days though, the pages of a guide book would just not be enough. Some days, I need a lot more. How do I know? " Woe is me" is my signal to myself that I have gone passed the point of a little stressed.  It shares the stage with, "am I the only competent person in the place?" Both thoughts are warning signs that it is time for me to think before I speak, assess before I react, review messages before I hit the send button and maybe even consider if everyone would be better served if I just turned my car around and went home instead of coming into work.

Did I always know this? No, but time, experience and lots of coaching have taught me well. A quick trip to Glacier Bay may not always be feasible but a day off, a walk around the building, venting with a trusted colleague or a emergency phone call to a mentor or coach may very well be.

While I encourage you to think about what will reenergize you, I offer that you may be better served by first taking one step back and asking yourself the question, "how do I know when I need a break?" and then taking the time to consider what you discover. There are so many things that happen around us that we cannot control. We can control how we take care of ourselves.

Hey, if cheap beer and lousy food will help the cause, you  may seek me out!

Supervisory Caution

Supervision can be both a wonderful and a thankless job.

Probably one of the most challenging parts is addressing employee performance and/or conduct issues. It is going to happen. Be it a discussion with an employee about the volume and/or frequency of his cell phone, telling an employee she has body odor; addressing internet misuse; or critiquing a wonderfully bad presentation, it is going to happen.

When employee performance and/or conduct issues do occur, take a tool from your toolbox and address them head on. Some supervisors use the same tool every time, the hammer. The pitfalls of always using the hammer are obvious to most. Either by leadership style or by conscious choice, supervisors can swing the pendulum the other way and, in the interest of preserving feelings, maintaining relationships or identifying learning opportunities, they reach past the hammer and grab a brush.

The brush is soft and gentle and it hurts less than a hammer.  When meeting with an employee to discuss performance and/or conduct issues, the message should be that the performance or conduct does not meet expectations/standards. Delivering this message is uncomfortable for all involved. And, this is the message that must be delivered.  

Supervisory caution: do not soften the issue or concern so much that the message is lost. 

Employee performance and/or conduct issues can be addressed head on with compassion and respect. Wouldn't you want the same from your supervisor?

Leave Your Problems in the Parking Lot

People have concerns. These concerns make their way each and every day into the workplace. Where it takes little more than a deep sigh, a long pause, an over-the-bifocals look or a quick reaction for some people to know that they may have missed the mark on an expectation, it also takes little more than a tip of the head, a concerned look, a simple "how are you" for a person's resolve to break away when they are concerned about something.

And, at times, people overestimate their resolve. What's a good leader to do? Listen. Talk to them. Allow them to be human. Provide them EAP information, time off, a quiet office or whatever they need at that moment. That's easy. Now, what if it is a leader? What if it is you?

Here's the deal. A few weeks ago, I was worried about my kid. After 7 years, I am seeing that this is just part of being a parent and often go to work with concerns on my mind. In this instance, I either underestimated my depth of my concern or overestimated the distraction work would provide. Nonetheless, 3 simple inquires into "how ya doing" on behalf of my staff ended with 3 conversations.

In hindsight, I probably should not have gone to work. And I can't stop thinking about it. I am thinking about the distraction I may have been that day. I am thinking about leaders bringing their problems into the work place. I am thinking about setting an example (or not). The thoughts just keep hanging around and they really need to go, so, I am writing. I am writing to get them on the page and out of my head. What's done is done.

People probably should leave their problems in the parking lot when they come to work but, really, they always can't.

Sacrificial Lambs. Not My Thing.

We made an error. Our error impacted employees. There isn't anything we do in HR that doesn't impact employees one way or another. In this case, we made salary based award payments and some payments were wrong. How did this occur? Rather simply - some salaries were inaccurate. We spent the better part of 2 1/2 days looking into this, weighing options, explaining, and preparing communications with employees. Not one person in HR took this lightly and some took it harder than they needed to. Great people, bad process. Let's move past this now.

Baby It's Cold Outside (The Inner Circle)

The birthday party. Remember it? You know, the one you were not invited to. The one you really, really wanted to go to but could not? The one that the others talked about but you couldn't join in because you were not invited? Darn. The talking, the reminiscing, the camaraderie that you could not share in. Even at age 5 it felt pretty lonely and the more they talked, the worse it felt. So, what was worse, not being at the party or the exclusion afterwards?

It unfortunately does not stop at children's birthday parties and continues in adult organizations. One morning in and by the afternoon out. "Economy down, need to focus on core business functions, strategic resources pulled in, down size your department from 3 - 1, reporting structure changing. Oh, did I mention, this is occurring today?" Conversations like this can signal the beginning of the end, if not of an employment relationship, of easy access to the inner circle. I ask again, what is worse, not being at the party or the exclusion afterwards?

Why does there have to be exclusion? Party size limits (my mom says I can only invite 5 kids) or business conditions (downsize, reorganizations and reductions in force) in and of themselves are not exclusionary. Most people, even 5 year olds, can get to one degree or another that life happens. They even accept it. The reactions, responses and behaviors of the people involved are what they don't always get and in many cases, have a difficult time accepting. There are those that are in and want to ensure everyone knows it, there are those that are in and are just as fearful of being sent out that they follow, there are those who are not sure how to react so they are neutral at best, there are those who are respectful and professional and then there are those who just simply don't get it at all. 

People's behaviors, truthfulness, and interactions, or lack thereof, are what those "remanded to the outer circle" remember and what defines their perspectives and perceptions of an organization and may even be a key determinant in whether they stay or they go. The inner circle expands and contracts as people come and go, business needs change and the nature of an organization evolves. It is ever present throughout an organization.

What would your exiting team members say about you?

A note of thanks to Natalie Cooper at Personnel Today for cementing this idea for me - it has been bouncing around in my head for over a week now!

A New Take on Trust

What do managers do? That's a pretty broad question so let's take me for an example. I am a manager, what  do I do? Well, when my daughter asked me that very question a few months ago, I started to think and came up with this, an example of my typical day.  But that is not the whole story.

When I returned to work on Friday after spending the week away on business, I spent the first 1 1/2 hours at my desk doing one thing over and over and over again. No, I was not banging my head on the desk but close :).  Sometime between Friday and today, I realized that I didn't mention this task in my recap of a typical day. How could I have left it off? What was I thinking?

Well, it can be a seemingly small task and something done routinely and often without thought. However, it really is much more than that. This is a task fraught with responsibility, accountability, and more. The first few times it was ceremonial, it was exciting and yes, I was young and naive. The novelty wore off rather quickly and now it has turned into something else. Let's just say that when I go down, it is going to be because of this task. When I go down, it is going to be for something that I signed. Yes, the thing that takes me down will have my name all over it. My signature will be my downfall.

I sign because that's what manager's do.  Research your action, do the leg work, get the facts straight and when I ask, be prepared to answer with information not emotion. Yes, at times I absolutely do have to see everything in writing. Tip: DO NOT respond, "well you signed it" when asked about an action. This is about as non recoverable as it gets for me.

I sign without much question or fanfare. Why? Because I trust you. Don't take that lightly. I don't.

Managing Relationships - Consciously

HR = service. Good service = happy customers. Good HR = happy customers. Unhappy customers = bad HR.

Are you buying it? Don't. You can't make all of the people happy all of the time and if your expectations are any different, take my advice and lower the bar. In the myriad of interactions in a typical day, with competing demands, unreasonable time lines and conflicting expectations, it is unrealistic to expect that you will be able to make everyone happy.

It is realistic, however, to expect you to consciously choose which relationships you manage and how. Whether you are aware of it or not, you are already making these choices. I was and I was not aware.

An employee requests advanced sick leave.  Supervisor and service line director recommend disapproval of the request. I receive the request to verify the technical accuracy of the request on it's way to the Director for approval or disapproval. I do not agree with the recommended disapproval. I share my concerns with the supervisor.  We agree to disagree. I consider speaking with the service line director but I choose not to. Union chooses otherwise, service line director was not aware of the whole story and now recommends approval. HR Officer kicks herself.

Why? I knew the same information the Union did yet did not take it beyond the first line supervisor. If I had gone further, management could have done the right thing without the union having to get involved and without unnecessarily upsetting the employee. Not a lot of smiles going on around this.

Why did I accept us agreeing to disagree on the issue? Well, I told myself, I had no reason to doubt that a set of informed decisions was made and felt that it was not appropriate for me to go above her at that point. I had my say and a decision was made by a person with the authority to make it. Well, I told myself, I was managing relationships and I was managing them properly by following the chain of command. Blah, blah, blah, my self explanations were just not doing it and this reasoning was not quieting the inner voice that kept nagging at me. What was I missing?

From out of the blue, there it was, my AHA in this. I was not managing relationships, I was managing a relationship. I was managing my relationship with a first line supervisor. I was not managing my relationship with the service line director, the director, the Union, the employee, or really even myself. Inner voice is quieting so I must be getting closer . . . .  did I choose this relationship over any of the others? I didn't make a choice, did I? You know what? I think I did. Hence, the kick. And the learning.

In the face of  interacting, colliding, competing, and complimenting relationships it's about being aware of what lies before you. It's about making tough, conscious choices about which relationships you will manage and just how you will do that. 

You can't make everyone happy. It's all about managing the smiley face and there simply are not enough smiley faces to go around. Use them wisely and remember to keep one for yourself.

Leader Talk

A superintendent, who was called out by one of his blogging principals for "failing to blog," commented on her blog yesterday with this:

"We have all heard the old saying; “lead, follow or get out of the way.” Well, it is time for me to do all three. I will lead where I am competent, follow when I need to learn and get out of the way when someone has a good idea."

Now, that's leader talk!

The entire comment is at G-Town Talks, referenced below.

The Shortcomings of a Leader

I was at our HR Manager's Face to Face most of the week. We reviewed supervisor's responses to an HR satisfaction survey and plotted a course for a new direction. There were great conversations and the requisite action plans developed. We were doing and saying the right things but sitting there those few days, I could not see how I could possibly get my department to where we needed to go.

Wanted - Rigor. Rigor in our processes, in our documentation, in our tracking, in our thoughts. Rigor in recording, measuring, assessing, evaluating and responding. Rigor in owning the areas we simply are not producing the desired results in and rigor in acknowledging and owning our successes. From another perspective, rigor in looking to the future and not getting mired down by the past. Rigor in figuring out what really is going on instead of giving in to temptations to complain.

I could go to work on Monday and mandate rigor, but I won't. I won't  because I know that I would be setting  individuals up to fail. 

If the strengths of a leader can lift a team, what impact do the shortcomings of a leader have on a team?

I appreciate Your HR Guy's recent  post about working smarter not harder and want to add that "smarter" can include addressing staffing in addition to processes and technology.  I waited too long to request more staff.  Ah, I could justify the delay in many ways but bottom line, in my heart of hearts, I felt that I should be able to do it with the resources I had and that to ask for more resources was admitting I could not get it done.  My shortcoming.

Lisa Kogan Tells All and hits the mark when she shares that her crabbiness factor sky-rockets when she feels overextended and undervalued. Mine too. I vent and, at times, I can vent too widely. While I was busy complaining, I was not seeing the tenuous position my staff was put in as they tried to balance their dedication to me with their service to the recipients of my misery and impatience. My shortcoming.

My relationship with other medical center leaders impacts perceptions of my staff and their capabilities as well as the ability of my staff to actually accomplish tasks. I have high expectations for leaders and as some fell short of those expectations, I tired of managing up. My shortcoming.

With my fight or flight responses back in check and my internal locus of control, I know that I can impact each of these areas. And I will. My strength.

Do the Right Thing - From the Get Go

Our job as leaders is to do the right thing. With employees, that translates to following the agreements, being respectful, treating employee's equitably and yes, it even means  giving them the benefit of the doubt sometimes. 

If an employee does the higher graded work, give them the temporary promotion. If they have used a large number of sick days but it has been for a chronically ill child and they schedule the days off in advance with you, advance them the sick leave they need. If they are returning from maternity leave and need to change their administrative time to coincide with their breaks to breast feed - don't question it, just do it.

Our job as leaders is to do the right thing from the get go. It is frustrating to me as both an HR Manager and leader when I see the right things occur only after the Union becomes involved. First off, I really am not big on putting feathers in the Union cap. Secondly, when you really get down to it, it starts to looks like our employees need the union to get fair and equitable treatment. 

Union 1, Management 0 - shame on us.

Defining a Generation

There are two things that I have not commented on. One, Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom and two, generational differences.

The Iraq operations really hit too close to home for me to be objective.  As for generational differences, there is a lot of very interesting work on this topic. Although I am interested in what is being said, I have not entered the conversation. One post I really appreciated was by Your HR Guy and like him, I am not particularly interested in a Generational Smackdown.

Well, these two issues converged for me the other day. I was half-watching the news yesterday morning when a picture of a young boy came on. He was being handed the flag from his father's casket. His father was a Marine. His father was killed in Iraq and this young boy was doing everything he could to maintain his composure under grace. He didn't want to cry. He was a young boy who had been forced to grow up way beyond his years, way too soon.

Honestly, my first thought about this was that I hope he has great, caring resources around him so he does not grow up bitter. My second thought was that maybe he has a right to be bitter. He definitely has a right to be hurting right now - he lost his Daddy.

How many other children out there are suffering a loss so heartbreaking as this young boy. Many, many, many. How is this going to define them? I hope not bitterness, but what about PASSION. Passion for what is right, passion for challenging the status quo and for not accepting that someone else may know better? Passion for asking the questions, for holding leaders accountable for each and every word they speak and action they take. Passion for doing what is right and not settling for any less?

How will each individual leader respond to this type of scrutiny and accountability. How many will fall and who will be left standing? 

How would this passion be translated in the workplace? For those who have it and are looking for a place to work, come work beside me.

How Do You Disagree with Your Boss?

"Everybody knows turnover at the top means upheaval. But new research shows just how bad your chances of keeping your job are." Thanks to the authors of a May 2007, Harvard Business Review article, "Surviving Your New CEO" for catching my attention with this lead in.

Turnover at the top is a fact of life in any organization and my medical center is no exception. The likelihood of retirements at the top in the next few years is very high. I like my job and if I leave it, I want it to be on my own terms. So, right to the article I went. The article is great. In it were steps you can take to survive, and even thrive, with a new leader.  If you are not a HBR subscriber, you can read the executive summary here.  

One word of advice from the authors was to "study the CEO's working style" and one anecdote in particular caught my attention. In this, an employee with a reputation for being blunt asked a new CEO how he should disagree with him. Caught the CEO off guard and sure caught my attention. Wow - if there is one area fraught with uncertainty, indecision and well, land mines, this is it. 

So, how do you approach your boss when you don't agree with him or her? More importantly, how do you do it to ensure you are heard and not harm the relationship? If you have worked for someone for any period of time you probably have it figured out but just how painful was it to get there? Let's say that some of my learnings over my years of work have been, well, less than pleasant. My approach, refined over time, has to been to watch, observe and generally work to figure out the working style of my boss and then adjust mine accordingly. I worked to figure it out. Now, what if I had just taken the route of the "blunt" employee and flat out asked? Wouldn't that have saved me some pain and misery and increased my chances of being heard much sooner?!

Blunt employee? No, I think he was rather sharp!

A Little Bit of Advice for New Supervisors

Nothing is as symbolic or visual as taking command in the military. At a change of command ceremony, all of the soldiers are in formation and leadership is present as the company flag is passed from the outgoing commander to the incoming commander. Accepting the flag, the incoming commander accepts responsibility for everything, absolutely everything, from that moment forth. Nothing is as scary as hundreds of eyes sizing up the incoming commander as the flag is passed nor is anything as sad as passing the flag to the next commander when the command is over.

Not many organizations have such visual or public displays but nonetheless, supervisory responsibilities move from the outgoing to the incoming regularly.  Ask seasoned managers, company commanders, supervisors, and the like, about their early days and you will hear about "the best of times and the worst of times." 

The flag is yours. So, what do you do? Well, let's ask the experts!

Donna Karlin, Fast Company Expert Blogger, provides her "three cents" of advice and these are my three favorites:

• Don't ever forget where you were before you got here
• Don't be a know-it-all. Because you're not perfect so get over yourself and listen, especially at the beginning. Everyone has something to learn and if you're a new leader, you need to learn more than most; even the bare basics.
• Lead each person according to their strengths and let them be known by their talents. But figure out a commonality at the same time to bring all those talented minds together to work as one. The team might not be unique but each one making up that team, is.

And, as Linda A. Hill states in her Harvard Business Review article, "Becoming the Boss," don't go it alone.

• Recognize that your boss is likely more tolerant of your questions and mistakes than you might expect.
• Help your boss develop you. Instead of asking your boss to solve your problems, present ideas for how you would handle a thorny situation, and solicit his thoughts on your ideas.
• Find politically safe sources of coaching and mentoring from peers outside your function or in another organization.

And from me:

• Take responsibility for both the good and the bad and savor the good - you created that.
• Surround yourself with smart people and ask lots of questions
• Do what's right, say what needs to be said and keep those very confidential confidences just that, confidential
• Come talk with us in HR. We are here to help.

The flag has been passed! Congratulations!

Necessary Face Time

New employees meet lots of people during their first few days on the job, starting right off at 8:00 with the medical center director. They are already know members of my staff who recruited them and led them through the pre-hiring and new employee orientation processes. They will continue to work with members of my staff to sign up for benefits and generally transition to life as an employee with us.

They interviewed with their supervisor and will very quickly meet their supervisor's supervisor and their coworkers. If they are a nurse, social worker or psychologist, they will meet the nurse executive, social work executive or lead psychologist who will have professional oversight of their practice. If they are a physician they will meet the Chief of Staff. I could go on and on.

So, amidst all this, is it really necessary that I, as the HR Officer, meet with each employee? Do I need face time with each new employee or they with me? I don't think so. Why, because I know that they are in good hands.

Personal or Positional Power

Some leaders fall short of my expectations. When they fall short for me, it is not necessarily in their abilities or potential, but they fall short in making what I think is such a very important and necessary distinction. The distinction between personal power and positional power.

Without getting into the many, many writings on this topic let me just sum it up in one general statement - you can have personal power without positional power and conversely, be given positional power without first having personal power. So, what comes first? What should come first? Does it matter?

Personal vs. positional power is not a "chicken or the egg" question for me. Best case is a leader with both positional and personal power but that is not always the case and when I can't have both, personal trumps positional for me every time. While positional power will only get you so far in the long run, personal power will take you as far as you want to go. 

As you look around an organization, you will typically see many combinations of personal and positional power. My favorites are the works in progress. The works in progress are my new leaders who are trying to figure this all out to be the best they can be for themselves, for others and for the organization. When someone steps into a leadership role without personal power, can they develop it? Absolutely but not with certainty and definitely not without a willingness to learn, develop and grow. It will not always be easy but worth it in the end.

So, how do I get this across to my junior and senior leaders and my works in progress alike?

Personal Side of Leadership

Imagine if you came to work and knew what your boss was thinking. You knew her likes, her dislikes, her goals for the department. More specifically, you knew her beliefs, values, preferences, and her rationale for actions taken. Imagine she knew the same about you. Imagine the same for your coworkers.

Now, what would that do for your quality of work and job satisfaction? Leaders, what would that do for you and your leadership? This is not about group hugs or false smiles. It is not about brushing problems under the rug and avoiding conflict. It is not about subjecting yourself to unnecessary discomfort or even about being an open book.

What is it about then? It is about having a voice. It is about authenticity. Authenticity. Don't just imagine it - try it.

Leadership Meme

I posted recently in Breaking Ranks that as HR Leaders, we need to take a hard look at our staff and at ourselves and ask, "do we have the right people in the right seats on the bus to get us to where we need to go?"

Well, I did and really, I look beyond my staff often and right to myself and ask if I am the one to get us to where we need to go? Some days the answer comes back more strongly and confidently than others but yes, I am the one right now to get us to where we need to go. How do I know? Well, in response to Leadership Meme, here are seven qualities that you don't know about me that help me to be a good leader:

• I know that I don't know it all. So, . .
• I make mistakes. Even my daughter's princess wand won't help. To minimize the potential for error . . .
• I surround myself with those who do know and I ask lots of questions. I am definitely data driven and must be able to connect the dots.
• I lead from my gut more than I care to admit. Actually, heart is a better word.
• I am committed to doing and being the best I can. Enter the leadership coach - yeah Abigail!
• I can be trusted - to do what's right, to say what needs to be said and with the oh so very confident confidences. 
• I am not in it for the glory. Didn't know there was supposedly glory in this leadership gig did you?!

And to these wonderful, witty and insightful blog authors . . . tag, you are it! Simon Meth at Sitting Xlegged, Evil HR Lady, Donna Karlin at Fast Company Expert Blogs.

Have a great day!