Gardening Leadership

The gardener knows
each of his flowers
knows how much water
sunlight,manure each requires,
some flowers wither away
if too much sunlight
while others cannot survive
without the sunlight....

As leader of a work team
do you know each team member?
what makes each one tick?
whether they work best in the morning
or in the late afternoon?
or do you insist that they work
by your time preferences instead?

Do you give them space
to work at their pace
to do things differently
if goals met effectively?
or do you insist they always work
the way you think is best?

Oh how boring team gardens can be
when they are mere clones
of the leader himself
its only when there's variety in the garden
it is appealing to the eye, fragrant to the nose
such teams emit an energy, enthusiasm
that propels other teams in vicinity as well!

Being a Role Model

What are you telling young boys & girls
during induction, in the initial days
expectations on integrity?
that customer is king?

Are you telling them to be polite always
to be passionate about goals
and do what it takes, no matter what?
to focus on quality each time, every time?
to teamwork, see the big picture always?

Beware! tell them the bare minimum
that you yourself believe and  abide by
as they are watching you 24x7
to check whether you practice what you preach....

Consistently meeting and surpassing own standards
can enthuse juniors to follow leader with passion
conversely,  if huge deviance between talk and action
it is  disillusionment. and a big
erosion of credibility ....

Instead of adulation towards a  role model
it is just contempt- higher
the hype and falsehood
higher the level of contempt!
and you end up leaving in your trail
a bunch of cynics, cynics
in the garb of employees for life!

Credit

Leaders who are reluctant
to share credit for success,
or assignments well done
will be resented by team & peers...
and in the long run they lose
all support and cooperation

Such leaders behave the way they do
more out of a poor self esteem
 they compensate for the
"I am not good enough" feeling
with  projection of self as a 'star'
around whom everything revolves!

The better way for long term gains
for both leader and organization
is to share credit with all contributors
real achievement after all
is when many own, give a hand
celebrate success together!