SPIN #4 – THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
What employees think: Be honest. Who are you promoting? Us or you? What’s your motivation for barnstorming conferences, summits and retreats and meeting the press? Are you advancing the strategic priorities of our organization? Or is this an audition for a better job and bigger paycheque? Or a testdrive for a pre-retirement career change as a consultant, author and professional speaker? You’re a thought leader who’s MIA here at work. Big decisions are being put on hold in your absence. We’re waiting on your signature and blessing. Meetings are being scrubbed and pushed months out because of your limited availability. It’s bad when you’re not around yet worse when you get back. You return with a head full of ideas and an armful of books courtesy of the thought leaders you’ve wined and dined with at conferences. And on your way through the airport, you pick up the latest Harvard Business Review and skim the articles on your flight home. Like a lousy boxer, you’re leading with your chin. When the punches come, all of us will feel the pain. In less time than it takes you to deliver your TED Talk, someone will dig up proof that you’re a hypocrite. Maybe it’s something you’ve said or done recently or in the distant past.
Maybe you’ve rewarded, tolerated or ignored the misdeeds of someone on your team or in our organization, a supplier, contractor or key customer. You’re a champion of a welcoming and inclusive workplace yet there’s zero diversity on your executive team and the golden parachute you gave to a senior leader who’d been harassing women for the past decade. Here’s a thought for your next talk – people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Our reputation could also take a beating because of what you haven’t said or done. It’s a bad sign that none of us at work can ever remember you publicly or privately talking about what you’re now pontificating about from podiums and in opinion pages. What’s worse, you’ve never reached out to the people who’ve dedicated their careers to the cause you’re championing. This makes you, and us, seem opportunistic. We’re going to get called out for virtue signaling, greenwashing or something worse. Or maybe you’re passing yourself off as a resident expert when everyone knows, or will quickly realize, you’re clueless. You have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re all hat, no cattle. Again, not a good look for you or us. And for the record, no one wants your book. We’re never going to read it. We’re not going to regift your book to family or friends. That would be cruel. We’ll either dump your book in the recycling bin or drop it off at our local thrift shop.
