is for you. All you need to bring is the willingness to improve yourself and the organization. You do not need a high salary or position; you do not need a diploma or a desk. But you do need to bring yourself and the belief that your work can be a source of happiness. Many of our most successful workers love working. It’s not unusual to find two people working side by side, where she loves her work and he hates it – and both have the same job. What makes the difference? It is clearly not the nature of the work itself; it has more to do with how people approach it. And how they approach others. These two people with exactly the same roles have made regular choices about how they will deal with others, and each choice has its own consequences. These two people choose how they see their roles, and that choice too has consequences. All of this is played out within an organization culture full of expectations and assumptions about the people working there, yielding even more consequences. This book is for people who relish – or would like to relish – going to work each day because their work holds promise. Rather than wasting their breath complaining about their lack of formal power, they build their personal power and get things done.
How to Read This Book
I have written this book for the busy person who seldom reads a book from cover to cover. After the introduction and first chapter, go where your current issues and interests take you. I did not write the book in the order you find it, and you do not have to read it sequentially. Open it to a random chapter and start reading. You will find that most chapters, after first guiding your thinking to a few key points, offer examples, actions, and exercises that help you think more deeply about your work – and maybe even do something about it.
Acknowledgments
Life does not allow us to succeed on our own; others are essential in defining who we are. I am especially indebted to the many organizations with whom I have worked as an employee or a consultant, for pay or for free, over the last thirty-five years. They taught me how to work with them. Whatever you find useful here, I learned there. I appreciate the experienced eyes and professional minds who critiqued the first edition of this book and suggested what I might do this time: Thank you Allan Paulson, Kathleen Webb Tunney, Frank Basler, Cathie Leavitt, and Jeff Pym. Sheila Kelly did the editing; she is a joy to work with – and even more fun to be married to. Steve Piersanti and his company, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, treat me in ways that most authors only dream of. It is a privilege to work with him again, on this our fifth book together.
INTRODUCTION
You Are Not In Charge
We succeed by helping others succeed; our accomplishment is dependent on theirs. In our more expansive moments, we might say that we make them successful. In their more generous moments, they might say that they couldn’t do it without us. We are often in-between, wondering how best to contribute and how much difference we make. Some of us get trapped “on hold,” waiting for the authority, waiting for others to tell us what to do. That does not work.
Our only chance for contributing is to quit waiting and wondering and do something. We serve ourselves and others best when we do not wait. Initiate, with the organization and all involved people in mind. No, we are not in charge but we can act. No, we are not formally designated leaders, but we can lead. This book will help you think of yourself as a leader, as someone who helps an organization, its people, and resources move in new directions. Yes, right from where you are, not waiting until you’ve moved into a more powerful position. Whether you are an individual contributor, a middle manager, a school principal, or a precinct chair, there is much you can do from your position right there in the middle of things. Whether you are an entering programmer, a journeyman mechanic, a PTA parent, or a social worker, you can choose to lead others. And, the first step in leading others at work is leading your own life.
The Illusion: Someone Is in Charge
Many of us grew up with the expectation that someone will watch over us, take care of us, be “in charge,” “know best,” and that this will turn out okay. Our families, schools, communities, and organizations taught us to believe this, but their teachings began to fray pretty early, usually before we became adults. Our contradictory experience confused us; we saw people “in charge” producing very mixed results. The people in position to “do what’s best” disappointed us. Programs they created, decisions they made, did not turn out okay – at least not for us and what we wanted out of our lives. We discovered that they would not watch over us. An extremely hard part of this learning is not our disappointment in them but our struggles with our own responsibility: If they are not in charge, who is? If I cannot count on them, who can I count on? What is my responsibility in helping my family, my community, my employer, or this world? What can I, what will I, do with my life? These are the big questions lurking behind the work questions we struggle with daily.
You may be thinking, “But someday I will be in charge of that committee (or agency or division or team) and I will change things!” Well, think again. That’s akin to getting married with the plan to start changing your spouse immediately after the ceremony. My research says that does not work very well. I have often heard executives lament about their difficulties in getting things done. When the president of a telecommunications company (with 23,000 employees across five states and nine hierarchical levels) first saw this book, he said “Finally, a book written for me!” His employees may not see him as not in charge, but he frequently feels that way. He knows the limitations of authority. It is too easy for us to attribute power to a position that we have yet to hold, or that others hold, and to diminish the power we currently have. This book works with the powers we now hold.
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