To Lead Is To Care

The more things change … the more they stay the same.    John’s “one chapter book”  explores a timeless attribute that lies at the very heart of leadership.  Perhaps Teddy Roosevelt expressed it best, “People won't care how much you know … until they know how much you care.”

 

In the last two decades information technology has dramatically changed the nature of work.  As we move forward it will redefine “the organization.”  If it can be digitalized it will be digitalized. Digitalization isn’t an end in itself, merely a means to compete in a world where today is the fastest things have ever been … and the slowest they will ever be. Artificial intelligence, cobotics, machine learning, newer and better ways to connect, blockchain and the host of other innovations represent both a threat … and an opportunity. To care is to manage the former with sensitivity and face the latter with an open mind.  It is to equip employees at all levels of the organization with the skills, insights and knowhow needed to thrive in an uncertain future.


Leadership is, and has always been, about followship.  As such, leadership is a sacred trust.  A trust that has to be won every single day.  People follow a leader who cares; someone who is more than a figurehead, more than an instrument of shareholder value, more than the manifestation of a set of competencies.  Not someone who cares one day and not the next.  Not someone who cares for some people and not others.  And not someone who thinks that they care.  If you wear the mantle of leadership, people need to KNOW that you care.


Do people know that you care?