Hide and Seek!

At three years old, my son taught me one of the most valuable leadership truths

I’ve learned, and one I will never forget. When I played hide and seek with my children,

he could never stay hidden. As soon as I walked into the room where he was hiding, he

immediately busted out of his hiding place and hollered, “HERE’S ME!” He never left me

guessing, looking, or wondering where he was, and what a great lesson it is to learn.

Hide and seek is not a game to be played in the realm of leadership. Availability

is a key element relative to leadership success, and the opposite also stands true as

well. A leader’s availability serves as a tributary to leadership accountability. Leaders

who've been given or who've earned the right to lead have also earned the

responsibility to be readily available, not conveniently available.

Some leaders think that because they’ve reached a certain rank or level of

leadership, they have earned the right to engage or disengage as they wish. This

mentality and practice not only diminish one’s accountability integrity (AI) but seriously

undercuts their predictability. Hide and seek leaders (HASL) are a hassle in the

workplace which by definition are troublesome, annoying, and bothersome like speed

bumps on a highway.

Hide and seek leaders, flitting in and out of the workplace, become like gnats

flying around one’s head. They are a miserable presence, or a maddening obstruction

to the flow of the workplace when they are around. Authentic leaders will never be a

HASL in the workplace. What about you?