The Modern Monarchy

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

If you’ve never listened to Seth Godin’s podcast, Akimbo, you are missing a 30-minute exercise in having your thinking stretched weekly.

Recently, he did a show about the monarchy called “On Monarchists,” which I thought was particularly good.

No, it was not about the royal family.

Instead, he pointed out how most businesses, most departments, and organizations are run as monarchies.

There are subjects called employees who are waiting for the royal (their manager) to tell them what to do.

Managers often lament that their people show no initiative.

They don’t realize that that’s the system that raises them to be that way.

Not just simply the employees but they as well.

After all, most of us grew up in a school system where the monarch was called the teacher, and we were concerned whether what they were talking about was going to be on the test.

If you are a manager or consider yourself a leader, how do you involve your staff differently than you have up until this point?

If you are on staff, how do you encourage your manager or leader to allow you to “think and act?”