How NOT to Lead

CHAPTER 2The Only Currencies That Matter as a Leader

Time

Time is money, and I'll say it again … if someone is wasting your time, they are stealing from you. Wise up!

—Kris Degioia

Leaders often need to give more credit to the currencies that are necessary to be most effective. Most of the literature in the space around leadership talks about the currency of leadership. But it's not one thing. No single currency will make you either a good or bad leader. And I'm not talking about the currency of money, to be precise. I'm talking in particular about the currencies of trust, time, and respect, which should be part of your piggy bank as a leader. You need to pay attention to them. If you ignore the criticality of the necessity and interaction of these currencies, which are fundamental to leadership, you are bankrupting your organization and, ultimately, yourself.

Being in a leadership position means those who work for and with you are invested in you with their most critical currency: time. That one currency is something no one can ever get back. Once it is spent, it is gone. Your employees and coworkers are investing their most valuable resource and their most fragile currency in you because they believe you will do something that will benefit them.

People don't come to work for you because they think you're terrific, they believe you're good‐looking, or they think you smell nice. They won't stay up nights, spend time away from their families, and travel internationally because ...