Leadership Essentials Series - Happy Riot Act
 There are many of you out
there that have heard the Happy Riot Act. If you’ve
been to “Best Boss” Transformational Leadership
you’ve definitely been ‘enlightened’ as
to the magical powers of this strong statement.
For the rest of you, you may find yourselves becoming curious
as to what it is I’m talking about. So for you I’ll
be as brief as possible and explain.
Originally the Happy Riot Act was a tool that I developed
back in the day when I was working as a Manager. At that particular
time I had been hired to take over a department with zero
morale. I had one staff member on final notice, and was told, “if
she so much as looks at you the wrong way…fire her”.
I agree, not a wonderful place for any of us to be.
There were two or three others in my department who were
actively looking for employment. I knew this because they
would be looking through the job ads during their breaks.
The ones that were not looking and not about to be fired well
they had full intention on remaining because well they were
of a victim mentality. In their minds they had nowhere else
to go, trapped there for a lifetime, forever at the mercy
of their employer.
Now just to be clear having people work for you because they
are imprisoned in someway is not shall we say, “prime”.
As a matter of fact, in my departments they’re usually
the first to shift the way they look at things or interestingly
enough before long they find themselves working somewhere
else.
Our work, the place that we spend approximately 1/3 of our
lives, in my belief, was never meant to be a jail sentence.
Anybody working with the mindset that they are experiencing
a “sentence” of some sort is definitely costing
the company money. And perhaps even more importantly the price
they are paying on a personal level (never mind what they
are teaching their children about work) is a thousand times
more costly than what it’s costing the employer.
So now you can see what my dilemma was at the time.
This was the birthing place of the Happy Riot Act...
I did many things within the first 2 weeks of my arrival;
mostly I watched and listened to the individuals that were
now my “team” as well as their interactions between
each other; who was alpha, who was scared, who was a butt
kisser, and so on you get the idea.
Then one day I called a general meeting, no pre announcement,
just a seemingly spontaneous gathering of our team, so that
I could share some thoughts.
It went something like this…
Actually I’ll save that for the Best Boss workshop,
because usually after I’ve shared the Happy Riot Act
the group just sits and stares at me. Mouths wide opened and
in complete amazement for at 30 seconds sometimes to a minute.
Then of course their egos start to creep in and the occasional
objection will come up.
And if you know me you know I love objections they tell me
you’re thinking, but in an email I can’t help
you work through them. So for now… Albertans I’ll
give you the full deal in November at Best Boss, Ontarians
I’ll see you in June. East Coasters…well I’m
thinking maybe April 2007, just not 100%
“Best
Boss" Transformational Leadership Edmonton/Calgary
is selling out fast!
But for now,
What I will tell you are the elements that make the
Happy Riot Act so powerful:
- Reclaim or Claim your Personal Power
- People are always giving away all their power. In the
Happy Riot Act the Personal Power statement sounds something
like this “ I realize in the past that I haven’t
always been the best boss possible. I’ve make many
mistakes, and… this is where would continue listing
off some of your most obvious mistakes you’ve made
in the past. Through this you’re taking away any ammunition
they may have and being accountable for the results that
have ensure due to your errors. Reclaim your Personal Power.
- Take full responsibility - Yes responsibility,
gosh there are so many flippin so called leaders out there
that won’t even take the necessary actions to produce
the results they’ve been hired to produce! Gee hmm,
did I say that out loud? Well you know it’s the truth!
Taking responsibility in the Happy Riot Act is about owning
what you did (the actions) in the past, and about telling
them what’s coming in the future. Yes a backbone is
required to do this successfully.
- Be fully accountable - Ditto on #2 just
change for the word responsibility for the word accountability!
Being accountable in the Happy Riot Act is about owning
the results, the consequences for your actions or lack of
actions in the past. It’s about stating what the new
consequences will be, whether positive or negative.
- The 3 Must Dos - of strong leadership
are also stated in the Happy Riot Act, and they are namely
Expectations, Boundaries, and Consequences.
Yeah yeah I know you know… well actually a lot of
you don’t know, cause if you knew it you’d do
it! That’s why there’s “Best Boss”.
Some of you do know about expectations or maybe consequences…
but then you come across as some freak of human behaviour
because you only do 1 of the 3 steps. I won’t get
into the details here, but there are 3 Must Do’s simply
because you must do all 3 if you want the results. And man
oh man it is so easy to do (once you understand and learn
these simple principles) and the results will blow your
mind!
- Create Vision -Yes for some of you this
is a completely novel idea. But creating vision is fundamental
in leading successful teams. Actually it is instrumental
in the success of any relationship. Creating vision for
others helps them to see what they cannot see for themselves.
It lets them know that you are leading the way for them
to enjoy some of the wonderful things they would like to
enjoy but don’t know how to get there.
I expect that there are many of you reading this are not
in leadership roles. These elements of the Happy Riot Act
are not limited in anyway, particularly to bosses, so feel
free to apply them to various aspects of your life.
Any challenging relationship that you are involved with,
whether a co worker, a boss, a spouse, partner, friendship
can be greatly improved by allowing yourself to fully learn
and then apply (yes at some point you’ve got to put
your money where your mouth is if you want the results) these
essential elements.
That’s it for now,
 Until
next time
For Your Success
Be Well,
Jackey Backman
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