Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Op-ed #10

Are you tormented by your vocal minority??

Fact:

You have a silent majority, but I bet you spend your time dealing with the vocal minority.

Discussion:

If you conducted a truthful survey of your staff, I would bet that most people would reveal that although things could always get better, they are probably fairly content at work. If they are not truly happy, they are probably still at some level of comfortableness.  Hopefully, they are not miserable.

Of course, if the culture is functioning the way it should be, happiness would just about be a given.  A healthy climate and culture promote a happy staff.  The entire notion of a healthy climate is the focus of my next book.  For the purpose of this blog today I want you to think about that vocal minority that ends up being a big pain in your backside.

The first thing I would do is to eliminate the use of the singular or plural indefinite pronoun.   I spent many years chasing after everyone, everybody, no one, nobody and nothing.  I can recall many days after one of my bearers of bad news came to visit me, and after the conversation, I would sit at my desk in bewilderment and depression.  Was this information accurate?  Did everyone really feel this way? Did all people really believe that?

Sadly, I will never be able to get back the energy wasted, or the hair lost over these runaway comments by this vocal minority.  I also wish I had all of the time back that I wasted on these wild goose chases about me, my philosophy, or my procedures and policies.

As I matured in my leadership roles, I was able to put these comments in a much better perspective.  I was able to compartmentalize them in my brain.  Of course, I had to reflect and do my own undercover operation to see if there was some semblance of the truth in these comments.  But I soon realized that everyone or everybody was really three or four disgruntled people hovering near the company’s “bitching post, *” and then running back to tell me all of the dirt.  They also knew how these comments would eat at me. I wore this emotion on my sleeve. I think this gave this vocal minority a great deal of satisfaction and yes, power over me.  You can disempower these folks by putting very little stock into what they are saying. You can probe deeper asking them who exactly is this everybody or nobody.  I think you can rely on the people that you trust and respect to enable you to get the pulse of your organization.

Most great coaches have a trusted group of veterans whom he or she could always talk with to get the real feel as to what was happening in the locker room.  The allies that you have within the ranks are critical.  You must cultivate your own group of veterans. You must respect them and you must show this group your gratitude. 

The silent majority and the vocal minority must want what is best for the organization.  A good leader is able to get the best out of all of these people.  But he or she must never forget that it all starts with relationships and the culture of your team, school or organization.

Go and get to work on your culture.  Everything starts there!

**Bitching post-I am convinced that every school or organization has a spot where this vocal minority clusters to feed off one another.  In schools it may be in the faculty room, faculty dining room or around a secretary’s desk.  Yes, many times your favorite secretary is the source of information for this group.  Your secretary may be in your office applauding you one minute and then goes out and feeds your adversaries the next minute.  We may need a full blog on this in coming weeks.