Knowledge is Power – A Killer of your Business

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Knowledge is Power

Hi and welcome to another thoughts on leadership.  This one is entitled “Knowledge is Power, a Killer of Your Business.”  Yes, I’m still finding in organizations the attitude that knowledge is power, and it doesn’t matter if it’s from the top of the organization or somewhere down.  I’ll tell you where it most commonly is; it’s among those who are the least effective in your organization.  There’s a thought for you!  Look around some of your managers.  Look at yourself in the mirror.  Think about that point.  Are you the person who thinks knowledge is power?  I need to know; if I know something they don’t know that makes me more powerful than everybody else?  Hey, do you know something?  That can be a killer in an organization.   Think about the effect that has on other people.  How it demoralizes them.  How it under rates them.  How it keeps them in a position where they’re never sure what they’re doing.  And of course, for the person that does it it’s a safety net!  Because if everything goes wrong its ‘well you see’, and they use it to defend themselves.  So it’s not a good situation to have in an organization.

There’s no such thing as knowledge is power.  The RELEASE of knowledge is power.  Those people who really understand the value in good communication, and releasing as much information as possible to release to people, and how powerful that is in terms of the way that it engages people and makes people work more effectively together, the better the organization is.  It’s as simple as that.  So think about, I’m asking you to consider this in your organization.  Think about what’s going on in your business.  Look around, particularly if you have managers in your business who behave like that.  Those are the ones that you really need to be paying attention to.  Because underneath them is a group of people who are not being as effective as they could be.  But don’t do it until you’ve looked in the mirror.  Ask yourself the question am I somebody who values knowledge that much that I think that it makes me powerful to know something everybody else doesn’t know?  It doesn’t work like that anymore.  And it’s a danger sign to yourself; if that’s the way things are operating.  So, this month, start with yourself.

The questions are:

• What am I like, am I somebody who’s got the mental attitude which is tell people as much as possible, don’t hide things?
• Or am I somebody who is being an example of this and others are following my lead?
• Look around your managers; the leaders in your organization,
  • how good are they?
  • Have they got that approach and they’ve got that attitude?
  • Are they willing to share and talk about things?
  • Is there somebody in there you can see that has this attitude knowledge is power?
  • What are you going to do with it?
• Do you have any of your people with that attitude?  Do you have this person over here who’s trying to operate, and operates under that sort of approach in doing their work and dealing with their colleagues?  If so, how are you going to deal with it?

Because leaving it is not an option.  It breaks down relationships; it undermines the culture of your organization.  It just doesn’t do you any good.  So I hope this has really challenged you to think a little bit about it, in terms of knowledge in your organization and where peoples thoughts and thinking are in that approach.  And I hope it helps you look at ways of improving your business.

Have a great few weeks ahead and Ill see you again next time.  Thanks.  Bye for now.