CHAPTER 3
Why We Need a Leadership Contract
A British game retailer, GameStation, revealed in April 2010 that it legally owned the souls of 7,500 online shoppers.1 As an April Fools' Day joke, the company had added an “immortal soul clause” to its online contract. The contract read:
By placing an order via this Website on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant us a non-transferable option to claim, for now and forever more, your immortal soul. Should we wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorized minions.
Luckily for inattentive shoppers, the company decided not to enforce that clause. But it made a useful point. With a simple click, you are actually agreeing to quite a lot. You have some sense that you are bound to a contract, but you don't know in what ways. The same is true when it comes to leadership today.
Our organizations are governed by all kinds of contracts. For a generation, our work lives were dominated by the old employment contract. You know the one: you get a job, remain loyal, do as you're told, and the organization will take care of you until you retire. That contract worked for decades, but we know today that it is no longer valid. But what replaced it?
I believe it's what I call the leadership contract. It has actually existed for a while, ...
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