"It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."

- Steve Jobs

Simon Sinek sums it up best when he refers to management as the practice of manipulating people for personal or professional gain. Humans don't like being told what to do. What motivates them is to be given a problem or challenge and asked to solve it either alone or as part of a team.

Gallup says that up to 70% of workers today are disconnected from the work they do. We have all seen it, colleagues and friends who feel they have a job more than a career. They are simply unmotivated, and that is largely from an attitude of being managed.

Managing employees is killing us.

We need fewer managers, more leaders.

"There are no great leaders, only great teams."

- Buck Bard

I quickly discovered that the more I researched leadership the more frustrated I became. There is so very much written on leadership, so many recorded talks. You think it would be easy, with so much content. But it simply isn't.

Research "great leaders" or "leadership" and you will quickly discover there is no secret sauce. Business textbooks and history tomes are filled with people we call great leaders but they are all different.

But then I made an incredible discovery. It came to me in a combination of Google big data, Simon Sinek, and the FedEx logo. The very best things in life are the surprises of serendipity. I found myself in my Jeep, stopped at a light, my mind wandering. A FedEx truck stopped next to me, and it hit me like an electric jolt.

Look at the FedEx logo and what do you see? Of course you see the 5 letters, but stare at it long enough and you will see the "famous arrow" formed by the E and the x. That arrow clearly does not exist, and yet it's there. I realized in an instant that was the solution. There are no great leaders. That's why being a great leader is so hard to quantify. Great leaders only exist because there are great teams. And there are so many ways to do that! That's why they're all different.

Google used big data to determine what traits crerate high performing teams, and we can teach you those same techniques.

Canary Works delivers a transformative experience built upon a proven framework that helps answer critical leadership questions through redefining challenges, rapid prototyping, and user testing. Our program allows you to reach clearly defined goals and deliverables and gain key learnings, quickly and cheaply. The process sparks innovation, encourages user-centered thinking, aligns your team under a shared vision, and gets you to your goals faster.

Using a unique Design Thinking approach, we assess your teams current state in each of the 5 dimensions, present those in a compelling visual manner, and then teach your leaders how to develop that high performing team everyone wants and needs.

Don't put up with lackluster performance, turnover, and people who just phone it in.

Be the leader you wish you had.