The Unknowing Hand

Readers of this blog know that I do not typically discuss late-breaking news. I've always felt that a little time to acquire some perspective before publicly commenting is a good thing. But that's just me.
Imagine a world in which politicians or celebrities followed that advice. We'd never have anything to read about. So in breaking with tradition, today's leadership lesson is ripped from the headlines.

I refer, of course, to a News & Observer front-page story yesterday reporting that US Department of Agriculture officials declare that free and reduced-cost school lunch data are confidential. The writer noted that this statement is on the heels of earlier comments by the US Secretary of Education urging the Wake County School Board of Education to consider unintended consequences of eliminating socioeconomic data in student assignment plans. Uh-oh.

What happens when one hand is unaware of what the other one is doing?  At best, speakers look foolish.  At worst, it drives public trust in elected and appointed leaders in the ground. In the middle lies all manner of mischief and mayhem thanks to trumpets blown uncertainly.

Folks, in my mind, it is just plain old bad leadership when citizens downstream are subjected to officials upstream who have apparently failed to compare notes, much less statements of public policy.  To say it happens all the time makes in no less tolerable.

To drive the point home, I invite you to think about, well, home. If you tell your children one thing and your wife or husband tells them another, what is the result? I am sure your little thought experiment is only theoretic. But here's what happened in my theoretical home as the kids were growing up.

Bang! That was the sound of my bedroom door being shut with me on the outside and my wife on the inside. Before that you could have heard this: "Your father told you what?!"

That was my wife's response to our teenage daughter telling her mother that Dad said it was okay to spend the night with the daughter of the parents who had left the girls alone until two o'clock in the morning last time our daughter spent the night at their home. Except I did not know it. Okay, I forgot. Theoretically. 

The point is that whether a citizen, child, or employee is at issue, they all deserve to hear a uniform message from those who are responsible for them. Such messaging depends, of course, on leaders working together.

Leadership is not a title. It is a practice. Part of the practice of effective leadership is constantly monitoring the environment, asking questions, collaborating, and learning from mistakes. I invite you to eliminate unknowing hands in your organization. It's not only bad leadership. It's bad business.