In last week’s Blog, we talked about the “unsung” hero in an organization. That person who “holds things together”: The facilitator, the peacemaker, the strategist. Shuttle diplomacy is a good way to describe there working style.
He/she is well know by the informal organization and is often the “go to” person when something needs to get done. We used the metaphor of the electromagnet force: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/blog/?p=585.
Great leaders understand the importance of having these people in the organization. Marginal leaders fail to recognize the critical role these people serve, and hence fail to encourage and reward this behavior.
How do you recognize this person:
1. They have tenure in the organization
2. They are often in a management or even an executive role
3. They are the person others go to when they need something done
4. They are good boundary spanners
5. Work they’ve been associated with often is successful and done with minimal
fanfare
6. They have institutional memory and use it as a learning and teaching tool to avoid
mistakes – they learn and use it to the benefit of the organization.
And they are invisible among the political noise, posturing, and positioning that runs rampant in far too many organizations. In our work in transition management and business growth, one of our first steps is to find these people because they are the key to a successful initiative.
Don’t make the mistake of overlooking or ignoring the people that make things work in your organization. Seek them out, talk to them, encourage them, find ways to reward them. And most of all, find ways to retain them.
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Copyright 2011 Kubica LaForest Consulting
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