Counter-intuitive thinking and living — This is how great leaders must approach the world of work to build truly great companies with positive company cultures.
Transformational leaders must work against the grain of prevalent culture to build a long-standing, profitable enterprise that benefits everyone, including employees, leaders, owners, shareholders, vendors and the community.
To change an organizational culture from negative to positive, from toxic to healthy, from average to excellent, leaders will find the need to walk on the highway of counter-intuitive thinking and living while organizations zoom past you going the opposite direction.
The predictable way is not best for everyone. The Wall Street business mindset has programmed leaders to win at all cost. This monetary-based work style is a short-term philosophy that carries a heavy human and societal toll.
Short-term thinking profits few but destroys organizations, employees and families. Great leaders must think and act in the long-term so that decisions have a higher likelihood of benefiting all stakeholders. Long-term living is counter-intuitive but the right thing to do.
Here are some counter-intuitive thoughts to consider in the world of positive people practices (P3):
#1 Nine to five is an imaginary time boundary for time-sensitive managers.
#2 An employee can be highly productive away from their cubicle.
#3 Great human resource department professionals don’t necessarily come from other HR departments.
#4 The CEO, not HR, creates a great employee culture.
#5 Human Resources should really care about people and not treat them like assets.
#6 Competent jerks who possess technical skills are still not good for business.
#7 Jerk-free workplaces attract the best and brightest people.
#8 Mild-mannered CEOs make better leaders than their Type A counterparts.
#9 Great employees are not looking for a nice office or fabulous benefits, but a mission in life.
#10 Technology should give employees freedom, not shackle them to a company campus.
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1 Comment
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Great ideas. It is a genuine challenge for many leaders and companies to shift from rewarding hyper-competitive, aggressive behavior to encouraging collaboration, kindness and empathy. The paradox is that kinder workplaces are not only better environments to work in for employees but also for the leaders who are fighting this kind of approach.
