Through the Leaders’ Lens: The Problem with Mass Market Advice

For the last several year, The Leaders’ Lens — dtkResources’ curated and annotated roundup of current leadership  articles and salient news items —  has been sent exclusively to my executive clients.  Designed to contextualize volumes of content, The Leaders’ Lens effectively cut through the clutter by providing executive leaders with the critical perspective they so needed to access more nuanced and strategic  thinking.

Based on its success, we’re now filling a huge need by offering The Leaders’ Lens articles — providing pushback, depth, and applicable takeaways —  for an expanded audience that’s more accustomed to consuming mass marketing advice peddled by amateurs.  Most well-meaning, but amateurs nonetheless.  Instead, we’re addressing this often misguided and occasionally irresponsible advice presented by otherwise discerning editors — by posting this exclusive material on my own website as well as on various news outlets in a comment or in the form of letter to the editor.

My reasoning?
At its best, mass market advice:

• Is elementary and simplistic, addressing the widest — and commercially advantageous — audience possible, with little applicability on an individual level;
• Is remarkably unnuanced, ignoring the complexities of the challenges currently facing  American business and its workforce;
• Is so homogenized that it  lacks guts and grit.  Written (or filmed) generically for the broadest demographic, it isn’t capable of speaking specifically to the real needs of individual employees, companies and industries;

At its worst, this generic advice — prescribed for the masses — risks inflicting outright harm to individual careers.    So, how can an evolved and evolving professional make any use of the mass market material as they try to grow and develop themselves and their  organizations?

To help, I’ve decided to begin publishing some of my pushback and perspective on popular — and sometimes risky — advice you may find in your favorite business journal or newspaper.  (See our growing list below.) But, feel free to use the following suggestions as a guide to dissecting and digesting whatever else you’re reading:

• Approach the news stories and articles academically for information, keeping your mind open to new ideas;
• Use the articles, stories and interviews as a point of departure, not as template or as a self-diagnostic;
• Be curious about, question, challenge and discuss new ideas, trends, obstacles and opportunities before making them your own and only adopt what works for you;
• Consider engaging a coach to help you set (and stay accountable to) realistic goals, implement any new strategies, and course-correct along the way.

   Past “Through the Leaders’ Lens” articles:

The Misery of Mandated Fun takes a recent Workologist article about mandated after hours activities through the Leaders’ Lens.

My response to Turning a Come-On Into a Contact  — a column originally published in the New York Times — may just save the career of ‘anonymous.’

2016 will go down as the year that 28 companies signed a White House Pledge for Pay Parity.  Great for women?  Too little, too late. Read more about this here.