Start With a Win

CHAPTER 7Presence and Passion: For Your People and Work

“Want success? Build community.”

—Adam Contos

A business has a great product, and everyone says its leader is great. He's kind and caring and seems to have overcome his fears (the Beast). Yet no one notices the leader, the business, or its products. Its customers won't even respond to calls.

Sound familiar? This is an all-too-common scenario for many companies, especially in tough economic times when businesses struggle. If you're a leader of one of those flailing or “invisible” companies, you may feel like you're doing everything right. Still, without customers, there's no forward momentum.

Perhaps you blame the sales team for not performing or your employees for not hearing or seeing you. It may feel as if you're trying to lead in a silent room. Some business leaders lay blame on the competition or a legal or environmental issue. “I'm doing all I can” is the typical leadership refrain.

TIME TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY

As tough as this is to hear, the fault lies with leadership, and more specifically, lack of leadership. The company's leaders have disappeared, and with them trust and connection. The good news, though, is that invisible leadership is a remediable problem.

Leaders are human like employees, customers, and everyone else. They aren't exempt from pressure, stress, or overwhelm. Leaders can be strongly challenged as humans and get deeply depressed, too. Leaders, however, are supposed to know better how to ...