By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to enhance productivity. Reading time: 2:32

      You’re an engineer 3,500 years ago in Egypt. And you’re trying to transport the famous obelisk –Cleopatra’s Needle—from Alexandria to Rome.

      You miscalculate the length of rope that you would need to lift Cleopatra’s Needle off the ground. The rope is too long. The winches can’t be tightened (shortened) any more.

      But then the leader in you comes to the rescue.

      You pour water on the ropes. The added humidity shortens the ropes. And you can then lift the 68-foot tall monument off its pedestal.

      The most effective leaders are like environmental engineers. They nurture the working environment to enhance productivity.

      Leaders as environmental engineers, develop the chemistry among employees, customers, stockholders and management, especially when the organizational chemistry must be held in a delicate– often ironic — balance.

       Working Behind the Scenes

      Leaders as environmental engineers know that water can be more volatile than kerosene if mixed with sodium. If you add sodium to water and light a match to the mixture, it will immediately ignite.

      But if you add sodium to a pot of kerosene it will not burn.

       As a leader– an environment engineer– you create optimum working conditions.

       Picture your company as an egg. The marketplace is a bowl of water. Drop the egg into the bowl. The egg will sink to the bottom.

      But engineer the environment — add a cup of sugar in the bowl of water — and the egg will float.

      That’s what leaders do. They buoy your business. Behind the scenes.

      As environment engineers, leaders are like the forest dweller hired to clear away debris from the pools of water high in the eastern slopes of the Alps. The mountain-top pools fed the spring that flowed near the town.

     But one day the town’s people fired the forest dweller. The town’s people couldn’t really see what if anything the forest dweller did to stay on the payroll. Soon the river became polluted and they hired the forest dweller back.

     The most effective leaders are always working behind the scenes.

     Engineering the working environment.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Engineer the work environment to keep
your leadership thinking in mint condition.

SUBSCRIBE: Have a Leadership Mint delivered to your E-mail every business day.
It’s free. Just click the SIGN ME UP box in the upper left column.