Helpless at Starbucks, or Exercising personal leadership and initiative

I am a Starbucks junkie.  If left to my own, I could go twice a day. If they had a hot beverage sized bigger than Venti, I would order that size; yeah, that kind of junkie. But it seems to me that at least once a week I find myself reaching for the milk only to find it empty.  And every time, I have to wonder how many other patrons have pick up that same empty pitcher only to sigh and go on their way, complaining about the milk pitcher being empty and having to go without milk in their beverage.

SURPRISINGLY, if you take an empty back to the counter, it comes back full.

But it doesn't end there; what is more striking is the fact that the philosophy in my workplace seems to be one of hand-wringing "Do as I say, not as I do."  I find it odd considering all the managers in my workplace are supposed to be the innovators and initiators of great visionary changes to how we conduct business.  Nobody wants to be the one to make a decision, regardless of the timeline or the outcome from inaction.  You see, I work for a government agency; for which I receive no recognition other than a pay cheque.  Being a bottom-of-the totem pole cubicle dweller, I can literally do the bare minimum and still get payed.  I am not required or even expected to go beyond the expectations of my work description, in fact in some areas initiative is not desired.  But I do exercise initiative and personal leadership; not because it's required by my work, but because I require it.  It's a demand I place on myself and shoulder the consequences with a grin.  Never was this demonstrated more to me than this week.  

In my workplace we have a communal kitchenette and every month one section has to do a weekly clean-up.  February is ours.  Everything was scheduled and everyone in our organization was informed by email.

When we showed up for clean-up, people were still eating lunch and hanging out; immediately, anyone who didn't want to do the task in the first place left. 

"We'll comeback when everyone is done." 

"There's no point in cleaning up, the sink is just going to get dirty again when people wash their dishes." 

Etc,etc, etc.  

I stayed. I don't want to clean the kitchen either, but it has to be done; and whether I do it now or come back later, I have to do clean up. But because I demonstrated 'personal leadership', a few of the co-workers who were hesitant came back in and helped me; other co-workers stood around waiting for everyone to be done eating and clear out of the kitchenette; and the managers were no where to be found. "Do as I say, not as I do".

Contrary to what has developed in corporate culture, leadership is not taking credit for others work or initiative and blaming your staff when things go wrong; punishing the productive with more work and the ineffectual with less. Leadership is rewarding the productive with more responsibility and making the less effective more accountable; assuming the mantle of responsibility for failures and eschewing credit, in order to recognize those who did the work.

But what does this have to do with anything?  To my mind, it seems to represent a bigger problem in society - lack of initiative and personal leadership.  The lack of 'personal leadership' is different than lack of 'leadership'. Leadership is the art of motivating people to want to fulfill your objectives; personal leadership is motivating yourself (and others through your actions) to fulfill other peoples objectives when you gain nothing from doing so.

You may never be in a position to be in charge but you will always have an opportunity to lead.

And remember, a small act can initiate great action, even if it is just getting the milk jug filled for the next guy!