By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to orchestrate traditional values in your organization. Reading time 3:17.

The procession of robed professors marched into the convocation ceremony. The lead person carried an ornamental golden staff that immediately attracted the attention of all assembled.

That sparkling scepter infused the ceremony with immediate credibility, authority and dignity.

Leaders know their rites.

Leaders know that symbols are louder than any cymbals – especially in orchestrating the attention of followers. They know that before you can exercise your rights you have to exercise your rites. You have to showcase your symbols.

How can you more fully wield your own ornamental staff used in a convocation ceremony? How can you wield your own five –foot long golden staff called a mace? Consider these five ideas to help you turn your organization into a place of even more A-MACE-ING Grace:

1. TITLE. Name a conference room after the founder of the company or display or name meeting rooms after company innovators .

2. ART. Invest in a piece of art that best describes the vision of the organization. For example, Egyptian and Roman ships had a swan’s head carved at the stern. The swan represented the goddess, Isis, protector of sailors

3. INSIGNIA. Give key leaders an insignia- something they actually wear like a pin or display on their desks or in their offices. For example, American pilots who logged more than 100 missions flying night sorties in Vietnam for the 609th Air Command Squadron each wore an insignia patch that said “Nimrod” (for hunter) from the Bible.

4. DISPLAYS: Japanese restaurants display a cone of salt outside as a sign of good health. A major office furniture manufacturer, focusing on helping people work together more effectively, showcased an ant farm in the lobby of its sales showroom in New York City.

5. INSCRIPTION. Carve the names of key leaders into the walls of a conference room. For example, the names of 72 scientists and inventors are inscribed around the Eiffel Tower’s first-level gallery in bold gilded letters two feet high.

Indeed, the most effective leaders who know their rites know that mace “on a stick” -an ornamental staff—is more stunning than mace in a can. Right on!

Today’s ImproveMINT

Showcase your rites to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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