Don't kiss up to the boss; kiss down to your colleagues.

When we look back in the history books, 2009 may well be known as the year when flat was the new up. The interesting thing about challenging economic times is the trend towards increased worker productivity. That’s right, when times are bad, productivity shoots through the roof.

The concept is fairly intuitive. When somebody in the office gets laid off, the remaining work force starts to show up a little earlier, work a little later, and volunteer for additional tasks.

As the labor pool contends with the fear of additional layoffs, a curious behavior pattern is emerging. People are nicer to the boss. Too nice. Perhaps the human body is secreting some kind of synthetic job preservation pheromone? Don’t get me wrong. A little praise never hurt anybody, but I’m beginning to wonder where all this newfound flattery is coming from.

At the June 11, 2009 Corporate Directors Forum event, “Leading in Times of Fear,” former San Diego Fire Chief Jeff Bowman confronted this issue directly and honestly. Having served as San Diego’s top fire fighter, Bowman knows a thing or two about leadership. His message was simple: Stop worrying about kissing up, and start focusing on kissing down.

How exactly does one kiss down?

Simple. Help others regardless of rank. Take the courtesy and respect that you show to your superiors and extend it to the people who report to you. Said Bowman, “If you’re focused on supporting the people you work with, then you don’t need to worry about kissing up to the boss.”

This philosophy, applicable in good times and bad, is profound and refreshing. Kissing down is all about building trust and respect with the people you are leading. It’s about letting people take risks and make mistakes without the fear of being punished for trying.

We can all learn a thing or two from Bowman and the heroes in our fire department. After all, I’m an accountant who’s been well trained to run out of burning buildings. So when you see a fire fighter going into the flames, you have to know that there’s more than a paycheck motivating him or her to follow their boss through the door.

That kind of respect can only be earned through solid leadership. Bowman credits his success to a focus on trust and accountability. He also maintains a disciplined sense of priorities in life using something he calls “The 4 F words.” The 4 F’s represent Bowman’s decision-making priorities, which he ranks in this order:

Lee Barken usually writes about clean tech issues.

1. Faith
2. Family
3. Friends
4. Fire Service

Notice that flattery didn’t make the list.

Lee Barken, CPA, is the IT practice leader at Haskell & White, LLP, serves on the board of directors of the US Green Building Council San Diego chapter and is a member of CleanTECH San Diego. Lee writes and speaks on the topics of carbon accounting, green building, IT audit compliance and network security. Contacts: 858-350-4215 or lbarken(at)hwcpa.com.

Tags: SDNN

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Blogs, Business, Giving’em the Business, Job & Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.