A little doldrum: the top-down has turned from the bottom-up

A culture to be considered
I've been quite enjoying the start of a four-day weekend.  The first day spent taking care of me.  I went for a mani-pedi.  I started a marathon of paint-ing while today I took my dog Buddy for a long walk, with ear buds setting pace to my walk and singing to my spirit.  You'd almost think that it would be classical wouldn't you?  Nahhhh, it is more rock.  Not pop music, country or ballads for me.


When writing slows down
I want to take a look inside and reflect upon why that would be so?  I maybe feeling uninspired?  That can happen to the best of us.  Pulling yourself out by the collar, takes strength, resilience and determination.  I have taken a break from painting and nothing of interest draws me to the TV.  (I've heard enough about "Brexit" for years, not even days, never mind hours).  



In keeping with the positive
An attitude adjustment may be in store.  Which is where I will write about "theCLUBHOUSEproject" I'm about to embark on later on.  Am I feeling melancholy?  Fed up? or Flipping out?  None of the above.  Just nawhthing that is rocking my boat of late.  I got a nice note from a colleague that I had written a recommendation for, and that gave me some umphhh:
there is hardly a better way of springboarding out of the doldrums than making someone else feel special.  If they happen to notice, or better yet, respond with a positive vibe, I know I have hit my mark.  It does make me feel better.  

A reflection from within
surfaced a concise take on a situation with these words:

I'm sure you'll go far now you're out in your-new-land, circulating

 around the head honchos.  I still get the giggles over that email that was sent out that day from your computer because you left it on .... "tomorrow pizza's on me!!"  Too funny eh?  I hope you will check out my blog

 and share it around your circles.  It is the truest to who I am,

 not the stifled version that works at a company

 we both know, that's for sure. 

 They put me on a new team and it is like working

 under a vice grip.  My TM is just waiting for me to mess up

 to enable it to pounce on me.

  I find it hard to believe that they are trying to make people

 when it looks like they really want to break them.  

Do you really know your cultural?
Or is it an image drummed up by the marketing and creative types?  I keep trying to tell people who are not listening carefully:  if you say it is so, it does not make it to be.

Who mans (or WOmans) your ship?
I sure hope it isn't a 20 something who can't get a grip on what your customers want, and cannot relate to who they are.  That seems to be the most common.  The value an organization puts to their social media is atrocious for the most part.  I'd bet they are paid less than your receptionist.

The value of first impressions
Centrically lies at your front door, who people see first when they enter your castle.  In today's world, I'm going to guess that something like 75 percent (conservatively speaking) outsource their reception kingdom.  Chances they are very young, very poorly attired, misappropriately mannered.  

A call for Ms. Manners
Do they even have such a thing around anymore?  Golly, we all remember Audrey Hepburn in that role about a rough-around-the-edges girl turned into a lady!  Yet we park the "before" version as the first person your very best customers, investors, creditors, shareholders, potential employees see.  

The tables are turning
The potential investor, customer, shareholder, sought after graduate is going to cross you off your list based on how important everything is in your organization, where responsibility lies at the top-down, not the bottom-up.   

A Sergeant Major leading troops
Belongs in the army or marine corp, not your company!  Yet, so many top organizations lean on to lean into the masses, push the bad ones out and the good ones too, where the mediocre survive, deafened or immune to management style that intimidates or incriminates, bracketed by a title that would indicate is your support person or advocate but is more inclined to promote themselves long before anyone else, unless it is one of their cohorts in the middle management aisles, defending each other, protecting themselves.

What is your personality?
We know what you tell the shareholders and the media viewers who skeptically buy everything you dish out.   If you were to walk into your company fresh tomorrow, as though you were looking from the outside, what would you see?

People friendly and engaged
Falls far behind stats, metrics, diplomas or degrees.  You really aren't looking for anyone that can think for themselves when you've kept the guard strong, stifle any ingenuity because that would only threaten the troops and take the majors off their game, briefly, before they are marched out or escape themselves.

As the economy rebounds
Many will have good memories.  They will recall the mishaps they scanned a while ago and have your company on the "stay away from" list faster than a nod on the "apply inventory".   

Respect, professionalism, ethics
Will far outway corruption, politics,  nepotism,  favoritism.  The leaders of those gangs exhausted and put out to pasture to make way for energy, enthusiasm, ethics, put out the steam of egos.

Roll up your sleeves and work
Without concern for who gets credit, because credit will always fall on the most deserving, not the stolen ideas.

Where training prevails
 Not as a fake lost leader but a real orchestration of talent pooling and magnetic to only the best of the best surface from.