UnLeadership

4UnLeadership Begins with Awareness

AWARENESS IS CRITICAL FOR A leader. Whether you recognize it or not, you bring your emotions and past experiences into work every day. Awareness moves leadership beyond a title and makes it a verb. It begins with self-awareness, understanding that as the boss, you have no idea what it's like to work for you, and recognizing you don't have all the answers and that your position may or may not affect communication and therefore understanding. Beyond even their team or company, UnLeaders focus outside their line of sight; they work toward industry awareness. They see gaps, are curious, and feed that curiosity. They ask questions: Why? How? And most importantly, Why not? They create resources, share their knowledge, and create an easier path for future leaders coming up. Awareness moves leadership beyond title and makes it creative process rather than something you arrive at.

Gerald Ratner inherited a chain of jewelry stores and in less than a decade, turned them into a billion-dollar enterprise. He flipped the industry script, turning away from elitist marketing and focusing on working-class customers, and it worked. Ratner disrupted the industry and became well known as a democratizer—and a very successful one at that. His strategy grew the company from 120 to more than 2000 locations, capturing 50% of the jewelry market in the UK. Ratner's success seemed unstoppable, until April 1991, when he gave a speech that destroyed his business. Advised ...