I have been immersed in leadership thoughts lately. It seems the concept of “good” leadership in IT has been surrounding me on a daily basis. And it occurred to me that a basic building block of “leadership” has been missing in some of the examples I am seeing on a daily basis. That basic building block is the Humanz.
We don’t have “human resources” in IT we have Humanz.
People.
You know: kids and adults; mothers and fathers; uncles and aunts; night time coaches and single mothers; night time students finishing their degrees and caretakers for their aging grandparents; people with past and history and a story of “how they got here”. These are some incredible stories. And if you don’t know the story, how can you help the Humanz. Yes … help. Isn’t that what leadership is?
Oh -wait. You didn’t think because someone has career goals that they can not put the “company first” did you? Are we seriously going to demonize career management as narcissistic?
Help!
And in order to help I have to first “give a damn”. I have to legitimately care about the Humanz. And I am not talking about the leadership course we all took on how to demonstrate that you care. I am talking about actually c-a-r-i-n-g and actually listening and actually asking “how did you get here and where do you want to go”.
For me, I have to actually care about the Humanz and THEN I can understand “a mile in his/her shoes” and THEN I can know the Humanz and THEN I can …. help … because help … IS … leadership.