Dear Leader,
We want to be honest with you.
Much of what's touted about leadership is BS, and you deserve the truth.
We know this is a bold statement, but play along with us for a minute. Here’s an example of what we’re talking about:
You were told by educators and consultants that empowerment was the key to cultural change. The problem is that these educators and consultants are divorced from the realities of business. They don’t have the scars and lessons from real leadership experience.
The truth is, the idea of empowerment couldn't be more wrong. Instead of empowering your people, you need to liberate them.
A lot of money has been spent (and banked) chasing after the magic formula. Don’t misunderstand us — we all need employees who feel and act empowered.
However, after years of striving, can we honestly say our organizations are more nimble and innovative, or are more readily initiating and driving change?
The gap comes from a complete failure to consider how empowerment intersects with the real world. We’ve spent decades creating detailed policy manuals and instituting control procedures, and then hiring the kinds of people who feel empowered within these confining rules.
Fancy engagement surveys and superficial pixie-dust training workshops aren’t going to have any impact on the decades of bureaucratic inertia within our organizations. The only thing that works are leaders who lean in aggressively to liberate their employees.
This requires a whole new breed of leaders who challenge and teach their people how to think more broadly. These leaders give their teams permission to ignore procedures that crush creativity, and they model the flexible, entrepreneurial behavior they expect from every other leader.
Restoring real leadership requires focused, decisive action in every corner of the business, and it cannot be delegated. It is not a spectator sport.
So, to get past the truckload of meaningless leadership development out there, we’re offering something different.
You deserve leadership without the BS.
We are not professors. We’re proven business leaders. We’ve been in your shoes before, and, like you, we care about results and impact, not just research and theory. We’ve made it our mission to cut through the nonsense and re-establish the core truths about leadership.
We invite you to join us on this journey. Let’s get real about the future of business and fight the good fight.
Take a look at some of our truths calling out the BS in our Lightpaper®, read through other resources, and contact one of our business leaders today. We’re ready to help.
Together, we can build leaders who will change businesses and lives forever.
Join us.
Honestly yours,
Lake Forest Center for Leadership