One of our recent Questions of the Week was, “What disincentives to taking the initiative would a visitor observe in our company?” (Watch it here.)

As we conclude our audio series on Good Leaders in Bad Times, we take a look at the workplace as a cultural system. (Our passion, I know. It might be risky to listen this week.)

We are all familiar with the workaholic workplace culture. We know the fear-driven cultures, the cultures of panic, and the cultures of boredom. We know the workplaces where everyone wears masks of competence and works in splendid isolation as a result.

We know the cultures of finger-pointing and blame-shifting. We know the workplaces that are always running at 100 mph, the ones who are always a day late and a dollar short, and those which have so many rules no one can use their judgment in making a decision.

But what about a culture of results? What if, in the very fabric of how you went about your days, how you communicated with each other, and how you approached complex and difficult issues, you created a culture of getting results?

What if?

Listen in.

What if you measured your effectiveness as a leader by the effectiveness of your team?

At first blush there’s nothing unusual about the question. Leadership is measured by one’s ability to achieve results.

At issue though, comes in the process of achieving those results. For whom do you really work?

Are you looking back, over your shoulder, at those higher on the organizational chart? Or are you looking forward, at those who report to you?

In this week’s show, Claudia and I suggest that leaders who report to their teams have a better chance of achieving results in tough times than those who report to their official bosses.

Listen in.

Come on now. Do you really believe that you got the promotion because you know more than everyone else on the team?

If you have a “more than” mentality about the tiers on the organizational chart, then this episode is for you.

The question becomes, whose skills, capacities and energies are you quenching if you have to know more than everyone else on the team? What talents and expertise are you missing out on by not being able to hire those who have more experience than you?

This week Claudia and I discuss the value of training people to be better than you. Imagine with us the breadth and depth of skills and experience you could amass if you didn’t need to be better than everyone else!

Listen in.

The problem can seem so straightforward. A runaway complainer. A mounting cost overrun. A slipping schedule.

What if the problem, though, were merely a symptom of something deeper needing attention?

What if addressing the problem on the table was actually preventing you from looking deeper, asking more probing questions, exploring what values and practices were creating the breeding grounds for the issue at stake?

In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss just this dynamic. Good leaders in bad times don’t settle for relieving symptoms. They dig deeper than the presenting issue and solve for underlying causes and confront systemic dysfunction.

Listen in.

After a blistering five weeks of criticizing business and political leadership for the arrogant, blind, brainless, fear-based, power-obsessed, insecure excuse for leadership they have provided in response to our economic crisis, we turn our attention in this next series to proposing a constructive alternative.

Hence our title, Good Leaders in Bad Times. It’s difficult to discern quality leadership in good times, because almost anything everyone does seems to work out okay when the economy is cycling upward.

But when the economy slows down, declines, or collapses, we discover who is all smoke and mirrors, and who is substance.

Here in week one, Claudia and I suggest that effective leadership in bad times begins with a good look in the mirror.

How might you be a part of the problem? Have you considered the question before?

Good leaders in bad times know that what others do and how others show up flows out from who they are and how they show up. In other words, if there is going to be change, it must begin with you.

Listen in and tell us what you think.

Then come back each week for what promises to be a thought-provoking and challenging series!

Good Leaders in Bad Times
Week 1: The Solution Begins in the Mirror
Week 2: The Issues Behind the Problems
Week 3: Training People to be Better Than You
Week 4: Reporting To Your Team
Week 5: Creating a Culture That Get Results

Listen in.