Next Level Blog

Seven Simple Rules to Create a Fear Based Culture

Thanks to the readers of this blog, I've collected a really excellent list of things to do if you're a leader who wants to create a culture of fear in your organization. Not that the readers and commenters are suggesting that you actually do these things. Unfortunately, though, a lot of them have been on the receiving end of these behaviors and have witnessed the negative results. Sometimes these results are, as I wrote in a recent post, Fear Kills, matters of life and death. Most of the time they're not. (At least not immediately.  Working in a stress inducing, soul sucking environment is never good for one's life expectancy over the long haul.)

So, with the idea in mind that a good way to learn leadership is to do the opposite of what really crappy leaders do, here is an edited list of readers' suggestions for seven simple rules for creating a fear based culture:

Business Travel Divas Turn Themselves In

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm on a reduced writing schedule while I'm on vacation with my family.  And those who read my post, The Business Travel Diva's Guide to Family Vacations a few weeks ago also know that I'm working hard to not be a travel diva jerk on this trip. So far, so good. At least that's the feedback from my wife and kids.

When I wrote the guide, I had a sense that I wasn't the only business travel diva out there. Since then, I've received confirmation that I'm not alone. There are some excellent comments on my original post (feel free to add yours) and, over the weekend, I learned that the Gulliver blog on The Economist's web site picked up on the post and added it's own perspective. There are some great reader comments there as well including this one from reader Edward:

"Having a strict no check-in luggage rule = no partner = die alone..."

Enjoy your summer family vacation everyone. Or, for my European readers, your holiday. (That sounds so much more fun than a vacation. I'd much rather go on holiday than to vacate.)

Fear Kills

In case you didn't see it, a report in the New York Times earlier this week offers a stark example of what can happen when the culture of an organization discourages open and honest dialogue. The article reports that in a study conducted earlier this year by the insurer, Lloyds, the crew of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico had significant and ongoing concerns about the safety of the rig. The Lloyds team was on board the rig about a month before it blew and conducted a safety survey and a number of focus groups with Transocean crew members over the course of several days.

Here's the passage from the article that really hit home with me.

Thrown Under the Bus. That's Not Leadership.

I haven't followed the news much over the past couple of days since I've been on vacation and have unplugged from much of the stuff I usually pay attention to. That includes cable news. This morning, while I was packing for the next leg, I turned on the TV and heard the story of the firing of USDA official Shirley Sherrod.

You can read this story in the Washington Post for all the details, but the quick version is that she gave a speech to a local NAACP chapter back in March. An excerpt of that speech was picked up out of context by a blogger and then Fox News and Sherrod, an African American, was portrayed in the 24 hour news cycle as racist against whites. Within a day, the national NAACP joined in decrying her as racist and she was ordered by a deputy secretary of the USDA to submit her resignation via Blackberry before the story was further flamed on the upcoming episode of Glenn Beck.

The problem was that when you watch the entire speech and learn the history behind her story, Sherrod is not a racist but someone who learned through experience to look beyond race. In the meantime, though, she was thrown under the bus in short order with no due process.

Video Book Club: Made to Stick

If you been to a book store in the past three years, you've no doubt seen Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. You likely remember the bright orange cover and the big strip of silver duct tape across the front.  Those guys practice what they preach which is all about how to make ideas sticky. Who could forget a book with duct tape on it?

In this week's VBC, I share a couple of quick takeaways from Made to Stick including the Heath brothers, organizing acronym, SUCCESS. (I forgot to mention the word, success, in the video but did spell it out for you.). Take a look to learn what it means in the realm of stickiness.