Toward or Away?

This month is African American History month. Or Black History month. Or the month of love. Or pick a day and there is a celebration on it. I’m not saying this to dilute the importance of African American History. I’m bringing this up because I’m wondering if we have lost our focus.In fact,  you can have a holiday for every day of the year.

I admit to not reading the news on a regular basis. I catch the headlines, decide if I need to dig deeper, and then move on. Lately the headlines are filled with words that are violent:
So-and-so slams so-and-so about….
This person stomps on that person about ….
I don’t need to fill in the blanks, I bet you have all seen these headlines yourselves. My concern is about our leadership. I’m an athlete. I like winning. Scratch that. I love winning. But, not because I stomped on someone else–because it rewards my dedication and contribution to raising my skills to the level of victory. Most certainly not because I lost and I’m determined to one-up the opponent.

If we have a leadership crisis, what do we do to fix it? What skills are lacking that we can bring to the conversation and create a bigger impact? If your firm has a new titled leader who isn’t the greatest in self-awareness, how can you assist in raising that bar for him or her? Remember that protest for the sake of “not you” (which usually happens behind closed doors in an alliance building conversation against the firm’s chosen leader) isn’t protest. It’s complaint.

Protest is about moving toward a solution, finding a path that solves a problem, crisis, or challenge. And, it’s time, people. It’s time to be part of the solution. We have enough contributions to our problems. I challenge you – what leadership skills can you bring toward the solution? How can you contribute your leadership strengths to compliment the strengths of others?