“Is it not enough that I am good at my job?” The simple and short answer to this question is, “no!” In 1627, English poet, John Donne, wrote that “no man is an island unto himself.” No matter where we are in our given profession, we are not islands unto ourselves.
We must learn that to become successful and influential leaders and create peak performing organizations, we must first adhere to the belief that simply just being good at our jobs isn’t enough today to make us successful let alone sustainable.
“Tyranny of the technical” is an expression that describes this mistaken belief in expert performance versus cooperative team performance. Evidence shows that when we become overly competent at “the doing” of our job, we often become incompetent at the ability to interact with others around us, which ultimately can stifle growth and development and lead to the creation of hostile work environments. When our behaviour lapses into “technical tyranny”, we repel those we need to work with in a productive way, and we create dysfunctional teams that inhibit organizational performance. Collaboration and connection are the “new competition” and the competitive edge to performance. It is imperative that we learn to avoid relying and depending upon the ability of any one person to simply “do my job.” We must begin to trust in and place value on the ability to connect, cooperate, and work positively and harmoniously with other people.
Some surveys show that as many as half of American workers feel low levels of work engagement stemming in part from poor leadership. If any one person, regardless of technical ability, cannot connect and cooperate with others, their technical expertise will not advance the goals and objectives of the team.
In virtually every organization one person is universally regarded as detrimental to the mission, vision, values, and strategies of the enterprise. This is the person whom others would like to fire had they the authority to do so. No organization needs a team member like this. And, it is up to leaders to ensure that these people either learn to be team players, or got off the team.
Remember, no organization can become what its people are not; if employees are mediocre, the organization will be mediocre. If an employee exhibits toxic behaviour, the organization will exhibit toxic behaviour. No aspect of this scenario can be good for the overall performance of any organization.
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.