By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to better focus on your key behavior as a leader. Reading time: 3:56.

You’re a leader. So, what do you do all day?

Walt Disney had an apt answer when a little boy posed that challenging question to the father of Mickey Mouse.

The creator of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi , Dumbo and so many more memorable cartoon characters said:

“Sometimes
I think of myself
as a little bee.

I go from one area of the studio
to another to gather pollen
and sort of stimulate everybody.”

Pollinating the growth of others is an instructive metaphor for the essence of leadership behavior.

No wonder the most effective leaders wing their way early and often among their staffs. Nothing planned. No meetings scheduled for at least the first hour “in the office.”

Instead they flap their proverbial wings 180 times a second -or an amazing 11,000 times per minute- and soar to a new higher, more developed, more productive level from their father’s version of managing-by-walking around.

Their series of impromptu interactions, always on their staff’s turf either in their workstations or in the hallways, are quick and pithy. It only seems like they’re trying to match a bee’s pollination proclivity in visiting up to 5,000 flowers a day. Continue reading →