This morning when I arrived tired, achy and barely awake at work, I went through the normal routine of shuffling back to my office and placing my stuff on my desk.  However, just as I was almost setting my lunch down, I noticed some six-legged abomination scurrying across my desk.  I’m not sure if it was a roach or not, it was small as those sorts of bugs go, but I extinguished its life with extreme prejudice.  Basking in the glow of my successful foray into combat, I wrote the following email to a janitor on the recommendation of the administrative assistant that works in the office next to mine:

I Hate to bug You, But…

Hi there, we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet, however I noticed something this morning that concerned me and Mindy ***** said that you are the answer guy for these sorts of issues.  In a nutshell, when I came into my office this morning, I noticed what I think was a roach scurrying about on my desk.  It looked about as confused which way to go as I feel when working on the **** website.  I smashed the little sucker with enough force to make it look like a modern art masterpiece, but wanted to check in with someone in charge of pest control.  Please advise and thank you for your assistance.

To your success!

Charles E. Snyder III

After I sent the email, I couldn’t stop chuckling about it, so I felt compelled to share my momentary stroke of comedic genius with you.  Now if only I could do something somewhat productive today…

Of all the times I have had to deal with stuff making it past the chinks in my mental armor, the ones that particularly affect me are those situations that involve young children and the passing of a relative or friend.  It seems that the last five or so years that I have attended much more funerals than weddings or birthdays for family and friends, but I guess that it simply one of the blessings/burdens of growing older.  Even after dealing with all of that over recent years, the death of a friend that took his own life this past week has really taken me off guard.  Processing through all of these thoughts and emotions to find a balance this time around seems to be somewhat elusive.

The biggest thing I am wrestling with is the fact that he shut most of his friends, including me, out of his life these past few years.  I believe that we, his circle of friends of ten or even twenty years and more, all feared that this day would eventually come; but we have all hoped and prayed that it would not.  He was dealing with depression and guilt for several years, which clouded his judgement.  Now we who knew him are dealing with his untimely demise.  Personally I have questioned whether there was more I could have done these past few years; especially knowing that he changed his mind before the end and I was oblivious less than 1/4 mile away at the fire house, but it was too late.

Now my friends and I are dealing with the mixed bag of emotions and beliefs that comes when someone close (or at least used to be) takes their own life.  I wonder if that phone call I was thinking about making would have made a difference?  I also wonder that if I had put the ambulance call to his residence the previous week together as actually being his, if that would have made a difference had I responded to that call?

Would my friend still be alive today?  I guess I will never know now…

One of the recurring complaints that I heard was that the folks who were supposed to be providing leadership, did little more than hide in their offices, doors closed and fiddling while “Rome” burned in strife.  The “leaders” had no connection with their troops and each side was growing ever more suspicious of the other.  The common folk in the trenches felt as if their leaders do not care about them and the leaders just knew that the peasants were planning to revolt.  Last but far from least, after several conversations with the management of the business, I found out that was really how the troops were looked upon, as peasants.

Needless to say, the whole reason that they were even talking to me to begin with is that business just wasn’t going very well.  As a matter of fact, things were in such a sad state of affairs that it surprised me that they were even in business at all.  But I digress.

One of the many things in life that I have found out the hard way is that there is always someone leading.  Whether it is a non-profit organization, a Fortune 500 company or a church group, for good or for bad, someone is always leading.  The million dollar question is, where are they leading you to?  Is it towards the pearly gates of heaven or that other place?  Are they leading you towards greater profits or are they leading you towards bankruptcy or even a lawsuit?  Are they leading your company to a greater vision or are they leading your organization towards their own personal gain?

These are some tough questions to ask and even tougher to ones answer.  The work involved with discerning between the options is not for the faint of heart or the meek because you have to be honest with yourself as well as those that are part of your business.  Brutally honest.  Seriously!

Leadership is the means by which any group of people or business thrives or dies.  Leadership is what defines where you as a business, group or organization are and where you want to go and even how you will get there.  Leadership directly affects morale, it sets the minimum standards, it influences the perception of people both inside and outside of your group and it is what will determine the culture.  Leadership is what sets the pace of business and determines the general mentality of a group of people.  Leaderships is what will make you or will break you.  Leadership is the root cause of your success or thunderous lack thereof.

In spite of that, I have absolutely no problem with pointing out the idiocy of certain aspects of parliamentary mechanization when I see it.  Particularly, the one I feel most compelled to rail about is what I like to call the “Ostrich Syndrome.”  As we all have heard at one time or another, when an ostrich is confronted with danger, sometimes it buries it’s head in the sand in the hopes that danger will just pass it by.  Just as ridiculous is when ostrich-like folks bury their heads in their posteriors, willfully becoming oblivious to the chaos and corruption around them.  The train of thought goes something like “I do not acknowledge it, therefore it does not exist.”  Of course the only ones they are fooling is themselves and perhaps a few easily duped individuals.  Their view is extremely limited and everything smells like you-know-what to them.

The leadership challenge with ostrich-people is getting to pull their heads out of their… well, you know… so that they can see the light of day.  They tend to be rather stubborn obstacles on the road of change because lets face it, change is very scary for some folks.  How much of a road-block they are depends on their roles within any business or organization.  Obviously, the further up the food chain of management an ostrich-person goes, the greater the harm they can do by sabotaging progress.  If you are unfortunate enough to have several of these folks in positions of power, you are in for a very long and arduous journey to affect any sort of lasting change.

Dealing effectively with these folks will test your patience, your will and your resolve.  Hang in there, even the most stubborn and deeply rooted ostrich has to pop it’s head out sooner or later for a breath of fresh air!

The background is that during the course of the weekend, a particular vehicle went somewhere on a particular mission and a particular person “nearly fell out and got kilt!”  OK, that is not the exact wording but I am making this just cryptic enough so that most cannot figure out who, what, when and where because I’d rather that you focus on the deeper meaning.  Plus, if you appreciate my sense of humor, then you realize that I am already poking fun at the situation; but I digress… 

Somebody nearly got themselves “kilt” or worse and now the “Safety Nazi” declared that the seat that the particular person was sitting on, is in fact unsafe and must be removed.  This seat and another just like it on the other side of the vehicle have both been in there for the past twenty years with no problem.  Granted things wear out with age and use, but the kicker is that others (including myself) experienced no such issues.  I declared to the Safety Nazi, “It must be magic door gremlins!”

When the “Mechanic” checked it out, a rather heated discussion developed within minutes.  Essentially, the “Safety Nazi” felt that money should be spent to modify the vehicle in order to make it much “safer” to ride.  The “Mechanic” told the “Safety Nazi” that he was smoking his underwear and that it was a training or more specifically, a personnel issue which I agree with.  In any case, the remedy that was enacted was covering those two seats and not allowing anyone to sit there without referring or seeking guidance from further up the food chain.

No matter which way it is sliced, there true cause of the issue was people not machinery and in the absence of any leadership, two people acted on their own in what they believed to be the best course of action.  And that is what brings us to the juicy meat of this rumination.  In the absence of leadership, people will do one of two things; they will do nothing or they will do something.  Far too often when folks are operating without direction or a common set of goals, they make choices that are likely not the best for a business or an organization.  That ultimately leads to a growing morale issue.

So the moral of this exploration of leadership is that any company big or small, for profit or not for profit, needs to have a goal or better stated; a mission.  This mission is typically manifest as a mission statement (how creative, right?).  Finally, the mission statement is the reason or reasons for the existence of a company, club or organization.  A good leader realizes this and develops a mission statement that clearly and definitively spells why XYZ Inc. is operating.  A great leader also incorporates a core set of values that specifically state how the company or organization will realize the new mission statement.

The alternative resembles the ancient method of torture and execution called drawing and quartering.  In other words, when there is not a common goal, people generally try to do the right thing, however this is often not exactly in the same direction as others.  This all too often leads to friction, conflict and finally morale issues that can literally kill a company from everyone pulling in different directions.  The end results are that the company dies from the people that make up the company ripping it apart from the inside.  And that my friends is not a pretty picture!

The title of the article is “Can leaders influence without authority? …Hardly.“ 

In all, it is a well thought and written article, that as I stated above, easily applies to ANY leadership situation in any industry.  Jeffrey goes on to list a number of qualities that make for a good leader, such as: respect, motivational, inspirational, reputation, resiliency, experienced, persuasive, ethics, image and so on.  Interestingly enough, almost every single one of these qualities he listed are all based upon or derived from a position of authority.  Essentially, the basis of the message is that leadership, without authority is little more than a pipe-dream.

All chemically influenced fantasies aside, the truly ironic thing is that I have recently lived this very scenario.  A few months back I was unofficially appointed to a previously undefined position within an organization.  It took me just three months to become thoroughly disillusioned with being a leader without authority.  While I was able to make some minor changes, the bottom line was that my position and work came under increasingly greater disregard, which also had the effect of greatly reducing the amount of influence I had for getting anything done.  So I resigned the position.

Remember that if you are given a position of leadership, you must also be given some amount of authority to go along with it, otherwise despite your best efforts and intentions you will sooner or later be rendered ineffective.  Just as importantly, as a small business owner, if leadership is delegated to a subordinate so must the authority to go along with it.  Leadership and authority go hand-in-hand because the reality is that people eventually do not offer up the same respect for title as they do for a title that comes with teeth.

Can leaders influence without authority?  From my own personal experience, very little and not for long!

Now that I am back, I sometimes wonder why I left and other times I cannot figure out why I stay now.  While I question some of my choices both then and now, of even greater concern is the state of disarray that this organization is in.  Perhaps it is a manifestation or a poor metaphor for the mess that my own life is in right now.  Perhaps the good Lord has brought me back here for a reason or a purpose.  In either case, it has got me to really thinking about a lot of things.

The answer that I always seem to keep coming back to is that of leadership.  No matter which way I slice it, it all seems to boil down to issues with leadership.  In one fashion or another, the root cause of most of the aggravating issues in my life, my businesses as well as this organization can be attributed to leadership.  Or much more appropriately, the lack thereof.

Having come to this conclusion, I started doing some research, not really sure where to begin.  This also prompted me to start doing some reading again, most of which has been solely dealing with leadership.  Since heading down this current path of self reflection, I have had a few “Ah-Ha!” moments that have led to a deeper understanding.  This deeper understanding has led to me freely sharing some of my revelations with others, with varying degrees of success.

So it is with the varied responses that I have received that I have decided to share some of these thoughts with you.  As I am inspired or annoyed, I will pick a piece of the puzzle to examine closer; be patient with me please.  Also, I sincerely desire feedback; anything more than a blank stare or a look like I just suddenly spoke in ancient Sumerian and sprouted a third eye is greatly appreciated!

Charles,
I ordered your book (Intro to Computer DJing & CPS) a few weeks ago and absolutely love it!  Lots of great info in there.
Chuck Kelsheimer

Thanks Chuck!  I’m glad that you found the book to be useful and your feedback is sincerely appreciated.

As usual, I had a great time talking to a great many folks while I was there.  I even remembered to bring along my camera this time to get a few shots of the folks who bought my book – but it took almost half of the day to remember that I had it in my pocket!  I was kept pretty busy all day long in between seminars when people would stop by to check out the latest from ProDJ Publishing, explaining my book as well as selling a few of Larry Williams’ books and even talking about the ADJA to several people.  By late afternoon Tuesday, I was all sold out of my books!

Thanks to all the people that stopped by, even if it was just to say hello.  I had a great time, got to see a lot of friends that I haven’t seen for a while and I also got a pretty good case of writers cramp too.

2009 Technology Tour with
Charles E. Snyder III

10 December 2008

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Nationally recognized author and seminar presenter, Charles E. Snyder III announced Wednesday his plans for a “2009 Technology Tour” of the U.S. to promote his newest book from ProDJ Publishing – Introduction to Computer DJing & CPS.  Kicking off the tour in February 2009 with a stop in Las Vegas for the Mobile Beat Convention, he will be making stops at several other special events including ArmsDJ, DJ Times Expo and the Computer DJ Summit. 

In addition to making stops at some of the major shows in 2009, Charles also announced that he is working with local chapters of the American Disc Jockey Association to help bring fresh new content to their membership.  Several chapters have already begun working together in order to host Charles at consecutive meetings, saving their chapters considerably on travel expenses.  To sweeten the deal even further, Charles is offering an exclusive ADJA-only discounted rate for this tour as well as special pricing for his book Introduction to Computer DJing & CPS.

Since 2004, Charles has been featured as a presenter at a number of national and regional conventions such as the Computer DJ Summit, DJ Times Expo, and Mobile Beat Summer Expo.  After more than two years on forced hiatus due to personal health and financial issues, Charles is back with a renewed energy for helping people around the globe leverage computer technologies to improve their businesses and their bottom line.  Armed with his newest book and two all-new presentations, Charles is working vigorously to get this vital information out to as many DJs across North America as he can.

Charles has been a Mobile Disc Jockey since 1986 and began using Computerized Performance Systems in 1996.  He first began writing a series articles on the subject of computers in the entertainment industry, which were published between 2000 and 2002.  In 2005 he finished wroting his first two books titled “So You Wanna Go Digital” named after the original series of articles.  In 2006 he joined the ADJA, he also became a certified CPSDJ by the Computer DJ Summit Certification Committee.  Through 2007 he wrote a number of articles for the Tricerasoft Newsletter as well as working on his third book, which was published by ProDJ Publishing in February 2008 – making its debut at Mobile Beat Las Vegas.  Also in 2008, Charles began working with the DJ Idea Sharing Podcast Network to start recording an ongoing series of episodes dealing strictly with CPS.

To schedule Charles to speak at a meeting in 2009, please contact him by visiting the Contact Page or call: 717.718.5218.  To read his increasingly popular blog posts on this subject, please visit his website listed above.  To order your paperback copy of Introduction to Computer DJing & CPS, please visit the secure online web store on DeeJayMasterMind.com.

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