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"It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's the place in between that we fear ... it's like being in between trapezes. It's like Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to."
Marilyn Ferguson

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Leadership Notes -- Thoughts on Leading People and Making a Difference in Organizations

Word count this issue: 265

Estimated reading time:  1.45 minutes

 

In an earlier edition of Leadership Notes I wrote about zombies. http://www.alisdairsmith.com/index.php/leadership-notes/256-zombies

 

And walking to an evening meeting last night, I listened to a great podcast from CBC’s Ideas show http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-coming-zombie-apocalypse-1.3288762

 

It got me thinking again about the people in our offices. As I wrote in that earlier piece, “And the same Zombie mentality is true of us as leaders in our team or department; are there zombies in the organization from your perspective? Could it be that accounting are zombies? Or HR, or maybe there are one or two people “no one likes” on your team. Be very careful of treating them as zombies and creating us and them situations. Instead, reach out, find common ground, talk things through, honouring each other’s perspectives and the potential to learn from and with each other.”

 

I’d like to take this one step farther, the divisive nature of our political zeitgeist needs to stop. Liberals or conservatives, what ever the party name, are human beings. We are our neighbours. The divisive nature of our business zeitgeist needs to change. Competition is good, it helps us thrive, but when we ‘other’ the competition, when we treat them as ‘enemy,’ as zombie, we start to destroy our own credibility.

 

To be the leader you can be, make sure that there is room in your heart and mind for everyone, not just the people who think and behave like you.

 

Because, in fact, zombies do not exist.