Last week Celine sang her farewell songs in Vegas. Five years of sold out performances. A friend of mine from Montreal attended the penultimate performance, not because she is a significant Dion fan but simply because she was in Vegas, and a good show is a good show after all. My friend observed that the most wonderful part of the performance was how Celine Dion was quick to recognize the contribution of others throughout the performance, paying suitable homage and giving the no doubt much deserved credit to other singers, dancers, and support crew who helped to make this show the sell out success it was. ‘Leadership’ was the word my friend used in this context. The singer had shown great leadership in her ability to include and recognize the skills and talents of others. A latte leader indeed. Trouble  hits for all organizations, and those within it, when hierarchy overrrides not just recognition and acknowledgement, but reason. How do you reason from a place within the corporation when the leaders in the C suite cast the final vote or worse are simply not listening? When is solicited feedback really valued feedback and not just lip service? Jim Donald the Starbucks CEO has held on to a life lesson he learned from Sam Walton during his time at Wal-Mart where he learned to ‘ask the front line’ if you want to know what is wrong with your business. But if you ask, you must really listen, and if you listen , you must listen to the reasoning and not override it with the power associated with your job title…..now that’s a latte leader.

This past week an update of our department’s org chart was distributed to reflect new reporting relationships and some structural ‘tweaking’.  With everyone neatly represented in their respective boxes, I couldn’t help but wonder … what’s the real message of all these lines of boxes linked to the box above them until you are all only linked to the uber-box – the coveted leader who sits above? If nothing else, this is a representation of the fallacy of leadership … the antiquated view of the appointed leader, the leader who has been chosen, the leader who is perched above – hiearchical, elitist …….. out of touch!

The boxed, hierarchical, rigid org chart is not representative of how anything truly gets done – and a Latte Leader gets this.  A Latte Leader understands that leadership success is not derived by adherence to the boxes; rather, leadership success is the result of a commitment to develop breadth and depth of people networks – relationships - with  the boxes beside, above, below and inbetween what is represented in the beloved org chart.  Latte Leaders exercise the shadow organization effectively and work to engage all ‘boxes’ to make things happen.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100135706/index.htm

This week while watching my favourite TV program, Location, Location, Location, it struck me that if LLL is the secret to smart real esate, then the secret to smart latteleadership is engage, engage, engage.

The real kind. Not the gather round for treats on a Friday afternoon at 3pm kind of engagement. Latteleaders engage their teams, constantly. Ongoing. All the time. Everday. I had a friend who lived in a very posh apartment building at Avenue Rd and Lawrence some years ago. My friend was a struggling writer who held a day job in a large financial insititution to pay the posh rent on the posh apartment. One day she met a fellow resident, clearly well to do, clearly not a struggling writer with a day job. As they chatted while waiting for the elevator, the resident asked my friend if she was going to work. As my friend confirmed she was indeed on her way to work, the response from the resident was a resounding ‘good for you dear’ followed by the rather puzzling question of ‘everyday dear? do you work everyday?’. This is of course a lesson in life, and the lesson here for the latteleaders is that leadership is what we do. Everyday. You don’t just do it on Fridays. Your team look to you everyday for leadership and you need to engage them everyday. Oh and not through more emails. How many of us are trying to lead a team through emails. Give it up my friends, your team do not need another note from you. They need dialogue, context, communciation, trust, loyalty and belief. And you need to be authentic. If baking is your thing then the Friday treats might work for you. If it isn’t, it won’t.

This week I read the ‘Future of Management’, which is a wonderful book by Gary Hamel, and a must read for every latteleader. One of the many take -aways from Hamel’s book for me is the reminder about McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y management styles. The big revelation for me on reading this is that I am a Theory Y leader in a Theory X organization. I’ve always known I was a Theory Y leader, but recognizing that I have been struggling with this in an organization where the prevailing culture is Theory X was a breakthrough. I tried for a while to modify my style, actually subconsciously, hence I barely noticed the misfit, and naturally it did not work. No results, no success, and no smiling – trust me I did not smile for 6 months. I’ve taken back control and am practising my usual Theory Y style. I decided the struggle to fit with the organization is better than the struggle to fit with myself. I am now an authentic, Theory Y leader and I believe I even cracked a smile last Saturday….actually when I saw the month end sales….