SENALOSA

Standing in line for a flight last week I overheard two people behind me talking about recent job experiences. It didn't take long for either to note some pretty significant weaknesses with their previous employers. Of course the usual suspects were bandied about: pay, benefits, and working conditions, but for one of them it was the people running the ship that caused him to make the leap to greener pastures. As he put it, "They didn't know what they were doing....there was no leadership, literally. They called themselves "Leadegment," leadership and management. Any time you have to make up a word you know how Dilbertesque the situation is!"

As a consultant for the past 10 years or so, and a long-time corporate employee before that I thought I'd heard it all, but "Leadegment!" Never before, and I hope never again! I'm sure this... what should I call them, leadership/management team had their hearts in the right place when they concocted this unique moniker, but to their employees it was probably seen as just the latest in a long series of smoke and mirrors attempts to keep them utterly confused.

Today more than ever I believe all of us want less confusion and more clarity - in messages, in language and in behavior. Business in the 21st century is complicated enough without re-writing the management dictionary. The same applies to your Balanced Scorecard efforts. When creating Strategy Maps of objectives and Balanced Scorecards of measures keep the thesaurus under lock and key and focus on plain and simple language everyone in your organization can understand and act on. If you don't, I might just have to inform your leadegment!