每家公司都有3种人：领袖、囚徒和过客

    为公司组织研讨会时，我总会在一番铺垫之后对与会者说：“在座的所有领导请举手，我想看看都是谁。”大多数情况下，他们会感到紧张，还有一些迟疑。他们左顾右盼，看看有谁会举手。还有人傻笑几声，还有就是茫然的目光和沉默……通常只有一、两个人慢慢地把手举起来。这时我会说：“好极了！欢迎参加这次研讨会！”然后，我就会问其他人：“那么，既然你们不是领导，告诉我你们是什么？”回应我的一般都是沉寂和更加茫然的表情。有时候他们会说，“这工作我才干了一年”，或者“我的职位较低。”但这并不是我想听到的答案。

    接下来我会问他们：“别人看得到你们吗？你们周围的人能看到你的举动，能听到你说的话吗？如果别人能看到你，请举手。”这时，所有人当然都会迅速把手举起来。接着我就会说：“如果别人看得到你，你就是领导。其他人会看到你做了什么，会听到你说了什么，而且他们会认为你知道自己在干什么。他们会模仿你的风格。因此，每个人都是领导，只是有些人不知道而已。”

    我提到这件轶事是为了说明这样一个问题，那就是在任何公司中，所有的参与者都是领导。只不过有些人是在有意识地当领导，其他人则没有意识到这一点——他们不知道自己的行为、言语和态度已经影响到了别人。但真实情况是，他们对别人确实有影响，但这种影响经常不会给人帮助，也不会产生积极作用。因此，现在大家也许正好可以问问自己：我是在有意识地当领导吗？还是在无意识地这样做？

    到了这个时候，我就会把通用电气（General Electric）前首席执行官杰克•韦尔奇的话告诉这些参加研讨会的人。韦尔奇说：“在每个团队里，在每家公司中，在每次研讨会上都有三种人：领袖、囚徒和过客。经理人的关键任务就是把领袖留下来，把囚徒和过客剔除出去。”在此，我想跟大家谈谈这三种人的区别，然后让大家决定自己想以怎样的方式度过一生。

    囚徒。这些人觉得自己被生活‘困住了’，他们活得就好像自己是一次死亡行军的幸存者，受了伤但仍在行走。他们更想在别的地方干别的事情，但“受环境所限”，他们觉得自己没有其他出路。他们的口头禅是“我没办法，只能待在这里，我别无选择。”他们或许还会给自己带上枷锁，边走边呻吟。囚徒抱怨的最多，责怪的最多，但在积极影响身边需要修正的事物方面，他们却做得最少。许多囚徒都很有耐力，甚至被提拔到了高级岗位，但他们只是高明地玩弄着权术，或者躲开聚光灯，这很遗憾，也很有讽刺意味。而且，由于别人看得到他们，更遗憾的是别人会模仿他们，这样的体制很快就会得到复制。大家对此觉得熟悉吗？大家认识这样的人吗？

    过客。过客和囚徒有很多不同点。不过，他们对公司的长期影响相当类似。实际上，过客只是“到这里寻开心”，不会真的严肃对待工作。他们还会设法尽可能地为自己牟利，同时尽量不为别人做什么。他们知道怎样从体制中尽可能地为自己争取利益，而且似乎总是希望自己能得到更多的东西。他们敷衍工作，随波逐流——主动地处于闲散状态。他们擅长“做好表面文章，不犯错误”，而且总是最后一个去承担更多的责任。如果别人看不到他们，情况就不会这么糟。但问题就在于他们很显眼，因此可能会有很多人模仿他们以及他们的“过客”风格。所以，很不幸，过客建立了另一种消极引领他人的模式。然而在某些公司，过客会在一段时间里得到升迁。

    When I run workshops for corporations, after some warm-up exercises, I always turn to the group and say “Would all the leaders in the room please raise their hands. I want to see who you are.” Most of the time, there is some nervous hesitation, faces swiveling around to see who might be raising their hands, a few giggles, uncertain looks, silence…and usually one or two hands will go slowly up in the air. I say “Great! Welcome to the program!” Then, to everyone else I ask “So, tell me, since you aren’t leaders, what are you?” Usually I get silence and more uncertain facial expressions as a reply. Sometimes they will say things like “Well I only started at this job one year ago.” Or: “I’m in a relatively junior position.” But these are not the kind of answers I am looking for.

    Then I ask them: “Are you visible? Can others around you observe your actions and hear your words? If you are visible, show me your hands.” Then, of course all the hands go up quickly. And I say “If you are visible, you are a leaders. Others will see what you do, listen to what you say and they are going to assume you know what you  are doing. And they will copy your style. As a result, everyone is a Leader. It’s just that some people don’t know they are leaders.”

    The point of this little anecdote is this: in any organization, all the players are leaders. It’s just that some are leading consciously and others are leading un-consciously---they aren’t aware that their actions and words and attitudes have impact on others. But the truth is: they do have impact, but it is often not of a kind that is helpful or positive. So this might be a good time to ask yourself: am I leading consciously or unconsciously?

    At this point I share with people in the workshop the words of Jack Welch, ex-CEO of General Electric, who says “In every team, every organization, every workshop there are three kinds of people: Leaders, Prisoners and Vacationers. The key for managers is to retain the leaders and weed out the prisoners and vacationers.” Here I want to share with you the distinctions of these three types of people and let you decide where you want to spend your time on Earth.

    Prisoners. These are people who feel ‘stuck’ in their lives and live as if the survivors of a death march, the walking wounded, who would rather be doing something else, somewhere else, but “because of circumstances” they don’t see other options. Their mantra is “I have to be here, I have no choice.” They might as well hand-cuff themselves and walk around moaning. Prisoners complain the most, blame the most and do the least to make a positive impact on things that need to be fixed in their worlds. Sadly and ironically, many prisoners have staying power and even get promoted to senior positions just by playing politics well or staying out of the spotlight. And, because they are visible, it is even sadder that others will copy them and the system is soon replicated. Does this seem familiar to you? Do you know people like this?

    Vacationers. Vacationers are different from prisoners in many respects, however, their impact on an organization over time is quite similar. In essence, vacationers are just “here for the ride” and don’t really take their work very seriously. They also try to get the most for themselves while doing the least for others. They know how to squeeze every possible benefit out of the system for themselves and always seem to want more…for themselves. Their work is perfunctory and they show up as “floaters”---people who are actively disengaged. They excel at “looking good and not making mistakes” and they are the very last ones to take on additional responsibility. If they weren’t visible, it wouldn't be so bad. The problem is, they are easily observed and so lots of people may copy them and their style of “sliding by.” So vacationers, unfortunately are modeling another negative model of leadership. Yet in some organizations, vacationers can move up the ladder for a while.