Which card game best describes your company’s leadership development efforts?
Poker
There are so many different versions of poker that can be played and likewise, there are too many versions of leadership development programs at your company. You never know which one is being played, you’re never absolutely sure of the rules, and you’re completely confused how to best utilize the resources to your advantage. The only employees who get ahead with these programs, know how to bluff their way past everybody else and keep a straight face while doing it.
Crazy 8s
Crazy 8s is a simple game, really, and developing your leadership skills at your company seems simple too. All you have to do is follow what someone else did before you. However, at your company, you do as you’re told, follow what others do to develop their leadership skills and get ahead, yet you never seem to win by getting that promotion. Someone else always seems to beat you to it.
Go Fish
You’re constantly on the search for how to develop your leadership skills and everybody is telling you to “go fish”. Nobody seems to know what to do or have what you need, and trying to find someone to help you find the resources necessary is a lost cause. You’re lucky to stumble across any program that might help you win that promotion and when you do find someone who could help you, they seem reluctant to let you use their resources.
War
Developing your leadership skills and thus getting promoted at your workplace is like an all-out war. Everyone is looking out for themselves and offering no help of any kind to someone else. You have to be quick and ruthless to get ahead or risk getting dumped on by those who are faster than you. Winners who develop their leadership skills and move ahead in their careers are often loud, obnoxious and quick to rub your face in their success.
Solitaire
It’s lonely at your company. Leadership development is left to you to figure out and accomplish on your own. There’s no help from anyone, no written rules and few, if any, resources of any kind. You work hard to develop the skills necessary to advance at your organization, but you often find yourself at a dead end with nowhere to go and no idea what went wrong.
Euchre
Just as in Euchre, nobody is playing with a full deck in your organization. Leadership Development efforts at your company are often incomplete and hard to understand. One time, Program A might help you develop your skills and “win” that promotion, the next time it’s a different leadership program. What’s popular and works to develop the people at your workplace changes rapidly, and when you ask for guidance or help, others often look down their nose at you for not keeping up with “the game”.
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