If Leadership Was A Punctuation Mark, What Would It Be?
Ever work for someone who thought leadership was defined by an exclamation point? Ever get confused by your own leadership style and whether you should get folks to follow you through a series of statements ending with periods? Is there a reason I’m beginning this post using only question marks? Hmmm?
We can get caught up in the notion that a leader has to be commanding…commanding in a sense where you’re slinging around words, phrases, and sentences ending with an exclamation point (my daughter likes to call them ‘shoutty marks’). It might sound something like this:
“Bailey! Come here! And explain to me why our customer is pissed off!!!â€
Or perhaps, more often, we simply issue those commands with a bit more subtlety. Something like:
“Chris. Please come to my office and tell me what’s going on with our customer.â€
Another option? Yep. How about using that wonderful creation, the question mark?
“Chris? What happened to make this customer so angry? And what’s your plan for making this right?
The first option isn’t going to win you any leader-of-the-year awards while the second might get you an honorable mention. The third one, though, leads to the gold medal round. The key is to get curious, which isn’t always easy or even the first thing we think of doing when something important is on the line.
Ask…is there something to learn here? And not just for you, but the folks you lead. By asking questions, you’re helping them learn from their own experiences. What may seem like an initial failure can turn into new opportunities. Use open questions (those that don’t lead directly to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer).
Finally, all of this isn’t to say there are not times when every leader must emphasize their words with an exclamation point or nudge folks with a period. It’s just important to remember that questions are an essential part of a leader’s repertoire.
I love the idea “if leadership was a punctuation mark.” I frist thought about the line: some people make their mark others sign their name.
If I had to choose I would choose “&”. I know technically the ampersand is a form of typography and not really a punctuation mark but give me credit for thinking outsite of the quotation marks.
As a leader I bring myself & others together and it about relationshings & results.
Also, and I know this is a bit bizarre, as i just noticed it as I looked closely at the ampersand —but it looks a bit like a side view of someone meditating and I think good leaders take time for reflection.
Thank you for punctuating my view of leadership. I think I will make a lot more extensive use of this symbol.
A quick follow up. I don’t think I need work on my creativity but I sure do need some work on spelling & typing.
David
Excellent, David. I love it. I think you make a great ‘point’ (get it? okay, that was really bad). There’s a lot of power in the notion of ‘&’ as a way we bring people and ideas together. And I really dig your observation of the meditative look of the ampersand…it puts the symbol in a whole new light.
Thanks for advancing the dialogue here.
Hi Again Chris,
I wrote a short post on ampersand leadership. See: http://zingeronleadership.blogspot.com/ Thank you for getting me to think about this and I will now always see the “&” as someone doing a form of sitting meditation/mindfulness.
David
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