I am always amazed at what I see on social media. People overshare, post pictures of their latest dinner, summaries of their latest workout (I may have done this a few times myself!) and then of course, there are the memes. Cat memes and Star Wars memes, and "I'm not (fill in the blank), but when I am, I (fill in the blank)" memes. You can get lost down the rabbit hole of Facebook, Instagram, or (dare I say it) LinkedIn just with the memes.
Memes are both good- I love a good Godzilla meme, myself- and horrible. For an example of horrible, look at the proliferation of leadership memes. I cringe when I see them. This isn't to say they aren't inspiring, or concisely encapsulate some piece of leadership, or aren't thought-provoking. But leadership is not a meme. When someone makes a meme out of leadership attempting to show leadership, it generally does the exact opposite. It illustrated poor leadership and management.
Let me explain.
I hadn't gotten very far into my master's degree in leadership before I noticed a something startling- or at least, it was startling to me. Several workplaces I encountered while temping in the early 2000s had those inspirational framed pictures. You know the ones I mean; a dark frame surrounded a photograph with a photoshopped epithet, "LEADERSHIP!" "TEAMWORK!", and a host of smiling faces in a staged picture supposedly representing the concept splashed across the picture.
The first time I saw one, when I interviewed for the payroll position I blogged about last week, I was pleased and comforted to see it hanging outside my boss's office. "What a wonderful reminder that we all need to work together!" I thought.
But for the first year, there was not much teamwork. At the time, I have no idea why they had a sign reminding them about teamwork, when they didn't actually WANT to work as a team.
Strangely enough, the pattern continued. Any time I worked in an office with one of those signs hanging on the wall, the organization behaved exactly opposite to what the picture urged them to embrace. Offices with "TEAMWORK!" on the walls were not teams. Offices with "INTEGRITY" on the walls were anything but.
During graduate school, the reason for this became a bit more clear- these organizations saw they had a problem with whatever issue they had on the wall, and were attempting to correct it. Unfortunately, all it did was call attention to exactly what the problems in the organization were.
Shortly after graduating with my leadership degree, I got a long-term temp position at a local retailer, working in their store support center. I didn't get very far into the building when I interviewed so I didn't see what was on the walls, and the interview went very well, so I had no idea what the organizational culture was actually like.
I was excited to start the job, and showed up for my first day happy to be working there. The receptionist rang my new boss so she could swipe me in until I could get my own employee security badge, and my new manager lead me down the aisle, talking about how she "breaks all the rules" they had at that center, and walks on the aisles that do no have dark paths in the carpet, despite the fact employees were only supposed to walk on the carpet with these paths , to keep traffic down in departments where people were supposed to be working. This was not an auspicious start- that kind of superfluous rule is generally a sign of poor management.
Then we walked past one of those signs. I felt my heart sink. It got even lower when 10 feet away there was another, and 10 feet away there was another. Literally every 10 feet, there was another of those signs. Every character trait and value that could be put on a sign was represented on their walls.
"Oh, no," I thought. "This is bad!"
It was. I had never worked in a morgue (my term for companies with bottom-dwelling culture) this bad before. Management was completely out of touch with their employees, and employees were furious with management. My boss and coworker openly derided their managers and the other teams in our unit. People micromanaged their coworkers, and then complained about the poor management. Every single sign on the wall was illustrated in how the employees interacted with each other, and with the people in charge. It was one of the worst jobs I have ever had, and coincided with a terrible period in my life, as I felt trapped by the job. The day I left (one day after completing my 3-month minimum term) was wonderful for me and my mental health.
I have seen this time and time again. Whenever there are words on the wall to encourage the organization, it always ends up pointing out what is wrong with the organization. I've seen this in business, churches, non-profits, and schools. If you want to know what an organization has problems with, look at the walls. If you want to know what a teacher is unconsciously teaching, check the walls. If you want to know whether a non-profit actually serves the population they are committed to, look at their walls.
So what does this have to do with leadership memes? The leadership meme on Facebook, or Linkedin, or Insta, or anything else, functions the same way. It illustrates where the problem is, not the solution.
If you want to know how someone leads, look at their actions. Are they kind? Do they respect their employees? What does their organization/department's turnover look like? Is their management team stable?
If the answer to these questions (or any other you can come up with) is positive, then you probably have a good leader on your hands. Not perfect- no one is perfect- but good. Then ask if they are teachable- and if they are, you have a great leader.
What do your walls say about you? What do you need to work on? We are here to help you with that. Our next Topics in Leadership seminar, Stereotypes in Leadership, is December 5th. Come join us! You can sign up here.
Talk to you soon!
Sarah
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