It Is Crucial To Recognize, Reward, And

Not Everyone In An Organization Is In A Position To Accumulate Power Through Competent Performance Because Most People Are Just Carrying Out The Ordinary And The Expected - Even If They Do It Very Well. The Extent To Which A Job Is Routinized Fails To Give An Advantage To Anyone Doing It Because 'success' Is Seen As Inherent In The Very Establishment Of The Position And The Organization Surrounding It. Neither Persons Nor Organizations Get 'credit' For Doing The Mandatory Or The Expected.

It Is Easier To Talk About Money -- And Much Easier To Talk About Sex -- Than It Is To Talk About Power. People Who Have It Deny It; People Who Want It Do Not Want To Appear To Hunger For It; And People Who Engage In Its Machinations Do So Secretly.

"leadership" Is A Big Topic Today. We Know That The World - Nations And Communities In Addition To Companies - Needs More And Better Leaders. So I Wanted To Explore How Leaders Make A Difference, How They Can Shift A Negative Cycle, Turn Around A Losing Organization, Propel A Team To Victory When Conditions Aren't Perfect. I Saw That What Leaders Do Is Build Confidence In Advance Of Victory. Then The Confidence They Produce Makes The Hope Of Success Turn Into The Reality Of Success, Because People Behave Differently When They Are Surrounded By A Culture Of Confidence.

The More Closed The Circle, The More Difficult It Is For 'outsiders' To Break In. Their Very Difficulty In Entering May Be Taken As A Sign Of Incompetence, A Sign That The Insiders Were Right To Close Their Ranks.

John Akers Once Said That Changing Ibm's Culture Was More Difficult Than Getting Elephants To Dance. Of Course It's Really Difficult, As Lou Gerstner Also Found Out Years Later. The Title Of His Own Book Is Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? He And His Top Executives Were Change Masters At Ibm. All Organizations, Especially The Larger Ones, Will Always Need Change Masters. Dissatisfaction With The Status Quo And Efforts To Improve It Should Be Encouraged Rather Than Discouraged. Regrettably, That Is Often Not The Case.