Leadership By Mantra

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door." - Irish Blessing

Leadership By Mantra

The recent surge in layoffs and organizational restructuring, leads me to believe that leadership has new challenges at hand. The old mantra of “doing more with less” isn’t going to cut it with the front lines any more. CEO’s, managers and supervisors might consider asking the question, “What does it take to get along around here?”. If they listen closely, they might hear the clues which point to a characterization of their situation, from the people who are most familiar with the gaps, bottlenecks and opportunities. Listening for the everyday language and especially the mantras can lead to significant shifts in perspective.

Mantras, defined as “sounds, syllables, words, or group of words that are considered capable of creating transformation” are the keys to understanding an organization’s reality. What people state out loud, and repeat to one another, becomes one of the standards of organizational behavior. Glass half full? Say no more.

Remember “MBWA”, Management By Walking Around from the 1970’s? That mantra inspired leaders to pay attention to the human equation of the business by building personal relationships. Front line folks actually recognized the management staff. Let’s try "MBB" - Management By Blackberry. The relationship connection takes on a different meaning, because the process overtakes the relationship in the equation. The words are sent, the faces hide behind the e-screen.

Pay Attention To Mantras

During a recent strategic planning session, I logged a list of mantras which surfaced during the day. The team realized that many of these were closely related to their values. Subsequently they began to reframe how they talked about the future, and developed a revised vision. Here is their list, with minor editing:

- Bloom where you’re planted
- The crap is the flowers of tomorrow
- S*** or get off the pot
- Get it done
- Take lemons - make lemonade
- You get what you give
- We’re not going to be sinkable - never again
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
- I hate being locked into anything
- Need to sleep at night
- Practice what you preach
- All for 1, 1 for all
- Enthusiasm is a rare breed
- Present me with solutions
- Find a way
- No idea is wrong
- If you want to run with the wolves, then don’t pee with the puppies
- We become what we need to be
- Opportunity in difficulty
- Doesn’t matter, right or wrong
- Everyone is an expert at something

These mantras shed light on what needed to happen next for this organization. The decision at the end of the day was to move ahead with resilience, instead of preserving a vulnerable, victim-like stance. The shift they needed came from their mantras, the daily comments which are the invisible, yet obvious clues for leaders.

The Lesson for Leaders

Without the human equation, nothing exists. Process and product depend on people: employees, customers, suppliers. How each one sees the world through their own rose coloured glasses affects behavior. Those actions speak as loud as their words.

Isn’t it interesting, that the most common phrases are the ones that should not be ignored. Perhaps MBWA is an old mantra whose time has come again? What goes around comes around.

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Maggie Chicoine is a professional level member of the Professional Writers’ Association of Canada, a charter member and director of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, and a Master Coach. Her column, The Tuesday File appears in www.lakesuperiornews.ca weekly. Reach her at 1 800 5817 1767 or www.theideasculptor.com