November 28, 2008

“It looks like his new favorite phrase is ‘scale new heights’.  If we have to drag him up the path, get ready to do some ‘heavy lifting’.”

The overuse of tag lines and buzz words becomes almost unbearable at times.

During one period some years ago that I recall with great humor, a group of us worked for a company president who was the ultimate responsibility and accountability dodger.  He hid behind words that he tried to make sound more important than they really were.  Seemingly every meeting was a session where we needed to “nail Jell-o to a tree”, “think out of the box”, be “team players”, gather the “low-hanging fruit”, “pass the baton”, and become “change agents” to find a “win-win scenario”. 

Of course, the worst part of the meetings was the obvious conflict between his words and his actions.  Unfortunately, this individual had no concept of leadership by example.  He stretched every policy, avoided every tough decision, and conveniently missed meetings with his boss, sending others (oftentimes me) to do his bidding.  He was tough to follow, even during good times.

One of his favorite phrases was “heavy lifting”.  Perhaps that was because he always left it for someone else to do.  Everything was an exercise in “heavy lifting”, or so it seemed.  During one of his meetings, a small group of us joined via telephone.  We were at a future customer location finishing negotiations on a very large deal.  Our hosts were kind enough to let us use a conference room to join the call.  Throughout our president’s remarks, it became apparent that he had either read or heard the phrase “scale new heights” a day or two before. 

After hearing numerous uses of the new tag line, a good friend double-checked the mute button on the speaker phone in the conference room and quickly made us all nearly fall out of our chairs.  He said of our boss, “It looks like his new favorite phrase is ‘scale new heights’.  If we have to drag him up the path, get ready to do some ‘heavy lifting’.”

Good leadership lifts.  It doesn’t cause drag.