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An incredible leadership blunder came up in a conversation with a business leader I met this week.

"We were having a good time at our 2012 holiday party," said Janet, the President of a growing outsourcing business in New York. "My boss, the Chairman and owner, asked if he could say just a few words. So I gave him the mic.

"He cleared his throat loudly and said 'There's hell of a long way you people have to go to be any good. I'm not convinced you're all working hard enough.' All I could do was to grab the mic back and make a joke about top-level management not being aligned. You can imagine what my team were like the next day."

What a bungled leadership moment! Temporary ego satisfaction traded for medium term productivity, lubricated by a little whiskey, no doubt. 

What's the lesson (apart from shut up if you're at a party and don't have anything nice to say?)

The lesson is this. You, the leader, are guiding your team on a journey to better performance. You are all connected at your spiritual inner cores. As the leader your power is special because you have everyone's permission to harness their inner core connections for the common good. If you can't surrender your own spiritual neediness for the good of the team, you invite them to withdraw that permission, get pissed off at you, and even walk. You'll never achieve the kind of sustained performance that is the hallmark of great leadership unless you can master this basic work of spiritual leadership.

Imagine the difference if the Chairman had simply said "We all have a long way to go. And I'm not sure I'm helping you enough, but I truly thank you for what you do."

Continue reading more about how to avoid destroying team spirit.

Stephen
Sustained Performance Comes from Calm, Confident, Connected Leadership