Tuesday, February 24, 2009

surely there must be more to business and work life?

If there was one thought that's stayed with me throughout my work and business life ...this is it..."surely there must be more to business and work ... than this?



The corporate world in particular is a huge waste of time and its so meaningless. We try not to see it for what it is but those of us in leadership positions owe it to the people we manage and ourselves to face the reality of what we have created jointly. Many people in senior positions are "asleep" and unconscious to the power they hold and the impact they have on other peoples' lives. It is my belief that successful busines people are created by society and community, without the 'permission' of a given community,we cannot do business within it, even if we wanted to. In a way its an honor bestowed upon us by the community we operate within and we need to treat this with respect.

My father used to say that a good reputation is worth its weight in gold in business. The current economic downturn is a good example of leaders not valuing the impact they have on others. It has been fuelled by greed and ugliness. I started reading a book by David C. Korten called " Agenda for a New Economy, from Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth" , in his book , he speaks about the idea of phanthom wealth - "creating wealth without producing anything of real value." This is not how our fore fathers conducted business. It makes me angry to see how many large businesses waste so much energy around share values and speculators instead on focussing on what their real purpose is - to serve their customers and to look after their internal customers- the people who keep the external customers happy!!!.
We cannot be leaders by position alone, we need to be leaders by permission. Its time to put some value/substance back into the work world, to look after the people we care about and make sure that their jobs are safe by doing what we are supposed to be doing in the first place. But its a two way street , whilst strong , visible leadership is needed especially at this time, we also need people in the work place to not tolerate "lousy bosses" When we tolerate bad behaviour from bosses, we are giving them permission to treat people badly and the problem only gets bigger. This is because others watch this behaviour and model after it , thinking that this is the way that things get done in the corporate world.

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