There isn’t one.

Corporations don’t have a conscience, people do.

That means that every time you say, “It’s just my job,” or “My department has a policy,” or “All I do is work here,” what you’ve done is abdicated responsibility–to no one.

It’s convenient and even comfortable to blame the anonymous actions of many working in concert on a evanescent brand or organization, but that starts you on an inevitable race to the bottom. Organizations have more power than ever before. They are better synchronized, faster, and possess more tools to change the economy and the people in it than ever before. And the only option available to the rest of us is for individuals to take responsibility (it’s not given) for what they do and how they do it.

The very same tools that permit organizations to synchronize their efforts are now available to you and to me. I guess the question is: will we use that power to humanize the systems we’ve created?

PS It’s not just about being a good citizen: when bad behavior comes back to hurt the company, it hurts you, too.

Reprinted from Seth’s Blog

Seth Godin has written twelve books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. His latest book, LINCHPIN, hit the Amazon top 10 on the first day it was published and became a New York Times bestseller. His company, Squidoo.com, is ranked among the top 125 sites in the U.S. (by traffic) by Quantcast. Follow him at SethGodin.com or on Twitter @ThisIsSethsBlog.

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One of my recent coaching clients, whom I’ll call Rodney, was senior director of sales for a medium-sized company. Rodney had a reputation of being a bully. He ordered people around, very rarely offered information about sudden changes in projects, and had harshly criticized one of his employees in front of other
people.

Rodney had been working for the company for over ten years, and was a high performer, and had not been considered a bully until he got his last promotion.

When I spoke to Rodney about his behavior he said, “I just believe in being direct. I tell it like it is. Some people just can’t handle being told the truth. They’ll never improve if someone doesn’t keep them in line.” He then told me, “I’ve always been assertive.”

It took several coaching sessions before he allowed that maybe, just maybe, there
might be a better way of being a leader. I helped him see that a title, and power does not make someone a leader. You can be in a leadership role but not play that role very well.

Rodney got it right that leaders need to be assertive, but what he didn’t get right was
that he was being aggressive and not assertive.

Rodney had to learn to be an assertive leader as opposed to being an aggressive
bully. Aggressiveness may get you attention, but it doesn’t get your heard. If you want to be heard, and you want your employees to love to do their best work, you need to learn the difference between aggressive behavior and assertive behavior.

Decide for yourself whether you are an assertive leaders who makes people feel included, or an aggressive bully who shuts people down.

Assertiveness means that you are able to stand up for yourself and your ideas in a way that does not violate or impinge on the rights of others.

You are able to communicate in such a way that you get your point across without
personally attacking others. It means that you can clearly articulate your
point of view, and what you want from other people.

You don’t need to make yourself look good at other people’s expense.

Aggressiveness means that you attack other people
personally, invalidate their self-worth and shut down their ideas. You put your
need to be “right,” first, and discount other people. It is not the same as
being direct, and assertive.

Assertive leaders know how to listen and be heard.
They know how to say no, and hear no without getting defensive and taking it personally.

Do you want people to listen to your ideas, and want to work with you, or do you want them to hate you, and hide every time they see you?

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