This was an interesting story for me because of my back story.  Since I was asked to 'retire" 3 years ago, the company has experienced its first 0 growth year, 2023, in 30+ years, increased its office locations from 10 to 16 sites, and grown from operating 150 to 155 truck per day. As per your advice, I maintain friendly relations with the owners and by extension many of my previous peers at the company.   

I tried to read the servant leadership material and found it to be nonsense.  Before I read what the experts wrote, I thought it was the concept of making sure your people have the time and resources to do their jobs.  

 

In some of my books I indicate the leadership guidance and cults that have collapsed: one minute management, management by walking around, open book management, holacracy, management by objectives, quality anything, servant leadership, etc., etc.

Leaders need to focus on a coherent and realistic strategy, attract and retain appropriate talent, manage by exception, set behavioral examples, and make tough decisions.

The Magic Pill store is just down the block, across from Sears, next to GE, in the old Eastern Airlines building. 

As I have read your books I have seen most of the ideas you just posted and I agree with you.  It's as if it is hardwired in the human genome to find a magic pill, when there is no magic pill. There are a lot of pills, and each solves a particular illness. Management by walking around just means that at some point a manager needs to go to the "shop floor" and see what is going on. Not that they should spend all of their time on said floor.  

I had the thought that being a good consultant is like being a company doctor.  There are some things like a good diet being akin to attracting and retaining talent. And there are other things, like your story where you told a client to change the color of the walls from red to blue. Not sure if it was blue, but not red.  I feel this is a good example of management by walking around properly used.

Anyway, I'm off to buy a lotto ticket because winning the lottery will solve all of my problems :-)

The willingness to work hard, learn, be honest, and maintain high self-esteem will win the day. Sometimes you also get lucky, but I've found the harder I work, the luckier I get. Of course, my "work" is someone else's day at the beach, because I've mastered skills that reduce labor and time.

Its here!

It takes a big box to make a little sense, apparently!