"If a person cannot say what they feel then they will feel what was never said"-Dr. Luciano Santini

Good morning to all my readers and thank you for your continued support. Today I would like to talk  about a few things but one being people of character do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it, and according to agreed-upon conditions. They are the leaders, the individuals to whom others turn for guidance, because they have demonstrated that they care, that they can be trusted. If you respect yourself enough to keep commitments even when it’s inconvenient to do so, others will come to respect you too. Dependability, like any other character trait, is a habit

I know that sometimes I write perhaps what I like to call controversial stuff but hey someone has to say it! I believe:

 "If a person cannot say what they feel then they will feel what was never said"-Dr. Luciano Santini

The one issue that I always seem to have when training and teaching executives is that though they usually think that their peers and employees believe in them and trust them. This is such an issue almost in all corporations in both government and privates sectors. What I found while doing surveys and interviews with both top leaders and staff was that those thoughts were completely made up in their minds because when talking to middle management and then employees the truth was and still is that most of the time they are not respected but both middle management and employees will follow policies and procedures to keep top leaders off their backs giving the perception that all is well and yet everyone is dysfunctional. 

I can tell you some reasons why this happens. One reason is by simply saying that any solution to a problem that was not their idea (Top Management) is rejected. I can tell you that most of the top management is very good at one thing which is deception. They will play the good cop bad cop and deceive good hard working people and you just have to be just as good to be able to see their deception and in today's world it is not very difficult to see.Then there is also a favorite that is used today which is (Top Management) will create the process to the solution using mechanics which will become boring and no one will want to do it. 

Then there is the favorite of all to break up the solution into so many pieces that to many people will be involved thinking that they are doing the right thing and yet at the end come up with so many ideas that nothing will make sense and once again the top leaders will of course reject at the end.

My favorite joke of all time. We have an open door policy!! How many times have we heard this one before! I understand the reality of this world today in business and I also understand what it means to have a true open door policy. I have personally worked with some amazing leaders who knew and understood what it meant to have "An open door policy" And unfortunately I have also worked side by side with leaders who openly voiced their open door policy but was the biggest joke among all staff.

In many surveys and in many interviews with top leaders in top organizations both government and private I would ask the question; What does open policy mean here? Most would just simply say that they had no idea what it meant or that nothing like that existed currently and yet I would see postings by a leaders office that stated the open door policy.   What most said was the following; "It means that if you do not like the way we do things around here leaders would be more than happy to show you the open door" I know pretty sad but yet it is a true reality among most organizations today.

In today's world of business I find that most  bosses do not ever say that someones idea is not wanted or that it will never work. I always find that when you bring an idea to a leaders that manages by power of position that a few raising of the eyebrows or well placed frowns or a reiteration of the issue and of course their time in the company is enough to kinda tell you that your ideas are not welcomed. One of my favorite of course is the conspiracy of silence from peers! What do I mean by this well let me explain. 

Let us say you have worked with a team for a while and you have some great ideas that have been proven among top leaders. Then at one time or another you do something that is so good they look bad somehow and yes it was not their idea. They also know you have the intellectualism and are afraid of it.

 What the so called top leaders will begin a conspiracy to manipulate those around you that allow themselves to be manipulated to simply stop speaking to you or the best one yet make themselves so busy all the time that they will not return phone calls or give you assistance. 

I will tell you again you have to be able to see it to survive in an organization because if you do not then you will drive yourself insane. I have seen great managers leave organizations when the so called 'Top Leaders" do such things but once again if you see it! I can tell you that it is the funniest thing to watch as it unravels.

Many conversation from my research and interviews admitted to me that they contributed below their capacity simply because so called top leaders had no idea how to manage people's knowledge. I worked with an individual who had been a dishwasher for over ten years in a hospitality organization.

 He did not speak one word of English. One day I asked him how we could streamline a process to avoid so much breakage of dishes and glasses. We were buying cases and cases every month to replace the breakage. He responded that his supervisor never listed to his ideas and so he stopped saying anything.

 I listened to him implemented his ideas with his direction and voila we saved close to one hundred thousand dollars across the organization and yes he was well taken care of and was sent to management school where he learned English and management skills that eventually made him a top leaders in the company.

My friends the Psychology of managing and learning must be a competency for management. The issue is here that to many so called leaders are not leaders at all but somehow ended in a leadership role and simply manages by power of position which is the worse thing a company can do to their staff.