I read a lot. I read to find answers, to receive encouragement and to stay sharp. I read old things and new things, popular material and hard-to-find stuff.
Yesterday I was reading a particularly ancient text which says (in part):
We have different gifts. If your gift is to lead, do it diligently.
Diligence is showing care and conscientiousness in one’s actions and responsibilities. It’s not shirking an obligation (in this case, to lead). It can frequently be found alongside earnest and consistent effort. Diligence goes beyond being busy or even engaged. Diligence has a special dedication to what is being done. It suggests enjoyment of the task.
That’s quite a lot packed into a single word. And the opposite of diligence?
Laziness.
Are you leading diligently?
I didn’t know until I started poking around for this posting that Diligence is one of the seven heavenly virtues in Catholic catechism. That seems appropriate.
Ideally, that would be the text that drives management! Sadly, most seem to live by the credo:
“Eagles may soar in the heavens;
But weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.”
@RogerX, I saw this comment come through a few minutes after you wrote it and I like your word choice! Management shouldn’t just follow the text, they should be driven to lead diligently.
I am a little confused by the quoted credo, even after thinking about it for a couple of days.
I believe you’re proposing a theory to explain why managers so often act like weasels: it’s a defense mechanism to avoid getting “sucked into jet engines”.
Certainly jet-engine avoidance could be a factor. But frankly, I think the biggest reason the manager/leader doesn’t “soar in the heavens” is that there’s an awful lot of flapping (work) required to attain the altitude needed for soaring. Could it be that the manager/leader doesn’t soar because many are simply lazy?
found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later
@FGrant- I’m glad you like it. I try to write relevant posts on topics that managers and leaders would find interesting and useful.
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