Years ago my father consulted to a mining company that was in financial meltdown. Unable to prevent the inevitable, his project wrapped up and the business had no cash left to pay his fees. As a token of their appreciation they gave him half a dozen ‘semi-precious’ stones mined from the site. Fast-forward several years and my Dad rediscovers the stones in his desk drawer, alongside a graveyard of stationery relics. Too small to make a useful paperweight they had been relegated to collect dust… brown, green and frankly unimpressive in appearance. Or at least they were to the untrained eye.

It occurred to him to have the stones valued and I well remember his shock when the call came from the valuer. These unimpressive, uncut stones were worth over $60,000 in their raw form alone. In the hands of a master craftsman their value would multiply further. You can probably guess what happened next. Suddenly the stones went from the unlocked desk drawer to the safe. They were added to the insurance policy. They were even eyed off by my Mum for jewellery pieces.

I wonder who is in your drawer?

Experience has taught me that in the drawers of almost every organisation lie people with extraordinary, but as yet unrecognised potential. Brown and green. Gathering dust. There for the taking. Over the years I’ve hired several individuals that other leaders had in the drawer. A few of those leaders even warned me that I was wasting my time. Today those same individuals have become truly world-class leaders in their own right and are ‘paying it forward’ as they help others realise their potential.

One of the most valuable skills you can hone is the ability to spot real possibility in people. Anyone can identify a leader when they’ve already been crafted. The mastery is in identifying, investing in and maturing that potential. It reminds me of Michelangelo who carved the famous statue of David from the very same slab of limestone that several other sculptors had already rejected as being too shallow and weak. He said later that when he looked at that slab he could already “see David in the stone”.

So perhaps it’s time for you to look again?
•    Take stock of your team. Consciously disregard appearances, position and market value. Ask yourself “What are they truly capable of?”
•    Find a valuer. Is there someone in your world with an eye for potential that could give you a professional opinion?
•    Multiply their value. One of the greatest gifts you can give your team is to not settle for raw potential. Be the leader they can trust to cut through the exterior and bring out their ‘wow’.

“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be” Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Regardless of whether you’ve connected with Twitter yourself or not, you’d have to admit its explosion into the marketplace is a phenomenon worth reflecting on. A feature of Twitter called “Unfollow” got me thinking recently. When you click “Unfollow” you stop receiving messages from that person to your home page, and unless the person has very few followers the chances are they’ll never even know you’ve stopped following them. That’s a picture of leadership.

Whether you are a Twitter devotee or think it’s a fad every leader should consider why people might “unfollow” them. So why do people stop following others on Twitter, and what could that remind us about our everyday leadership in the real world?

1.    Be a conversationalist: Monologue = Monotony
Everything changed when I stopped just making statements and started asking more questions. My Twitter replies went through the roof and comments on my blog increased, all because I invited interaction. The truth is most followers are looking for some level of dialogue, not just a monologue. I heard Mark Scott, the CEO of ABC Television, say “Today if you broadcast but don’t interact and engage with your audience you condemn yourself to irrelevance”. When we stop talking at people and start talking with people we go to a higher level of relationship.

2.    Be interesting: Quality beats quantity
I follow some people on Twitter who only ‘tweet’ once a week, and others who tweet dozens of times a day. The key for me is not how much they say it’s whether I find them interesting, informative or entertaining. I believe quality beats quantity. You can communicate lots if you are high on value for those who listen, but if you add no value you’re likely to find people “unfollow” your leadership without you even realising. It’s important to acknowledge though that one person’s “interesting” is another person’s “boring”.  So leaders need to ask themselves, “What is likely to be interesting to the audience I’m trying to reach?”

3.    Be a source: A giver not a taker
Much of my learning especially on social media and the web comes from articles I find through following gurus on Twitter. I follow them because they are a source of expertise or news. The fact is any leader, who acts as a resource to people whenever they can, will have no shortage of people following them. It’s when we become self-serving that our leadership really wanes. Are you a giver or a taker to those you come into contact with?

4.    Be consistent: Whoever you are, be that
There’s no such thing as a person that everyone wants to follow, so be who you are and be that consistently. Often in trying to be “all things to all men” we end up being nothing much to anyone. So learn what you can about why people don’t follow you, but then get on with being the best you that you can be. I find Ben Stiller hilarious so I’ll happily read his tweets about his goldfish dying, and I think Darren Rowse is a genius on blogging. But if Ben Stiller tried to teach me about the web, or Darren Rowse started tweeting funny events in his day constantly, I’d think twice about following either of them anymore. So who are you?

Ask yourself:
•    How well am I engaging my followers in a true dialogue?
•    How relevant is my communication to those I hope to reach?
•    What proportion of my interaction is a gift not a request?
•    Who am I to those who follow me?

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I was talking with one of the senior team at Gloria Jeans Coffees last week and she made a memorable statement as we discussed the different ways leaders can view the challenges facing their teams. Sadly it’s something many organisations don’t seem to understand- “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. I couldn’t agree more.

Now, I’m not one of these leaders that describes themselves as being a “big picture person” in an attempt to gloss over a lack of attention to detail. In fact, I love strategy. I enjoy problem solving. I care about scoring every point I can, not just winning the game.

But if I had to choose between culture and strategy as my primary weapon there is no contest. I will choose culture in a heartbeat.

1. Culture Is Soil

The culture of every organisation is to its team what soil is to the plants that depend upon it. Focusing on strategy without addressing culture is rather like planting a palm tree in a swamp. No matter how good your strategic initiatives may be in their own right, the likelihood of their sustained success comes down to culture more than just about any other single factor. I’m no horticulturalist, but it’s common sense that unsuitable, barren or toxic soil will eventually kill even the best plants. The leader that ignores culture is often the same person who rants about the ineffectiveness of their team, blames HR for poor hiring, moans about “Gen Y”. Their team are stunted, fruitless and impotent. And culture is their silent killer.

• So what’s the true condition of your soil?

2. Culture Is Life Blood

The culture of your team is its life supply. Its essential role, like blood in your body, is to bring life to every area and to carry away the toxins that would otherwise destroy it. For better or worse, when a team is injured they bleed the true culture. Who we are when things go against us says everything about our actual values, regardless of what mission statement we put on our website. A healthy organisation has potent culture pumping through its veins, mostly unseen yet nourishing every part. No hardened managers blocking arteries. No internal bleeding quietly draining life away.

• So do you need a blood test?

3. Culture Is Ideology

If we elevate strategy without giving attention to culture, we’ll win the battle but lose the war. Down through history the empires that have truly altered the world as we know it were those who ideas, world view and beliefs impacted the cultures that came into contact with them. The best teams have a pervasive passion about them. They get the big “why”, and as a result “what” and “how” tend to flow quite naturally. When we live our values its easier to develop people because everything we do and say is part of their training. Great ideology creates a contagious culture.

• So what’s your infectious ideology?

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Somewhere along the way we got the idea that “business as usual” would reassure people. If there’s road work outside, or we’re renovating, we put up a sign like the one above.

But what if “business as usual” is the problem? What if we need to be unusual? What if all the change around us should prompt us to change? Better yet, what if we were the ones driving the change around us?

In changing times and a competitive market place you might do better promoting “Innovating, as usual”