Earl Wallace

One-Dimensional’s are All About “Me” - Not the Mission!

A boss insisted I’d “be a team player” by signing a time sheet for a person I knew was not at work for all the hours claimed. I politely declined, and then my boss tried controlling me with anger, and pounded on his desk, and said his job title meant he could do what he “damn well pleased!”  I respectfully replied, “That may be so, but not above my signature.”

Two-Dimensional’s Ruin Resources with “Us vs. Them” Dynamics

I advised him, “It’s going to be very challenging for me to maintain discipline among the twenty people I supervised, in more than a dozen offices, if people know that others have special relationships to not be at work while getting paid for it.”

The Three-Dimensional Leader contains tips for how to deal with bosses who care little about the organization’s mission. One strategy is to report as high above your bad boss as possible. This, however, is risky for three reasons:

1. People assume that integrity accompanies bigger job titles, so they will tend to believe your boss over you. 
2. The boss usually has a stronger relationship with the people above you both, and has more access and opportunity to “spin” the story to suit his/her preferences.  
3. Your boss can charge you with insubordination, so you had better document conversations and prepare to present as much evidence as possible, because you may need them to defend yourself.

The Three-Dimensional Context of “We” All Are In This Together 

MRC focused leaders make teams tick, vs. ticking them off! They avoid letting others leverage relationships to cloud objective judgment and obtain special favors. Three-dimensional leaders treat all with the same standards, and thus overcome and avoid these dysfunctions and foibles. 

Delegation is the formal transfer of authority. Many of us know that we do not delegate as often nor as well as we should.  Here are three reasons why, and what to do about them: 

We don’t delegate because

1. We are too busy to figure out what part of tasks, functions or processes we should delegate. 
2. We don’t trust others to do a good enough job. 
3. Our egos get in the way of delegating, because we are insecure about someone else either getting credit or doing something better than we could do it.   

The Three-Dimensional Leader: Negotiating Your Mission, Resources and Context, lays out the process of Training, Timing and Trusting to overcome these issues to achieve delegation.

Training Achieves Synergy 

Productivity at first declines when you take time to organize and train others, who also must go around a learning curve before they fully are productive. Doing so, however, later achieves synergy and far greater output.  

Timing Builds Experience 

Training should include structured time on the job that delegates experiences that progressively increases one’s responsibilities.  Appropriate feedback builds trust that learning is taking place.

Trusting Is Based on Values  

Training must include values, because they generate behaviors. Values motivate actions.  Once people demonstrate they have your values, you can trust them to handle your processes with appropriate behaviors.   

Delegation Requires Submitting Ego to the Mission 

Great leaders do not have to posture and pretend they are the smartest person in the room, but must be able to ask the right questions of those who are the brightest in their areas, and then empower them to do what is decided upon. Nothing happens unless a leader authorizes and empowers activity.  Are you a leader who can submit ego to the mission to train, time and trust to delegate effectively?

To get teams to perform well requires leadership to obtain synergy from the members’ diversity, so they work together to achieve “collective competence” as a team.  Consider football teams.   A football team needs people whose physical nature and psychology make them excellent offensive linemen.  It also needs some people whose bodies and mental chemistry make them good defensive linemen.  Teams need quarterbacks that are good at throwing, and tight ends and wide receivers whose bodies have longer limbs and arms that are great for running swiftly and catching things coming at them from various angles. Football teams also need running backs who bodies are powerful and agile to dart in and out of tight spots to outmaneuver others. There are other smaller, skinny people on football teams who are good at kicking.  Without this diversity, a football team cannot be successful. 

The challenge for a team getting synergy from its diversity is that each of the different players approaches the mission from varying psychological viewpoints.  An offensive lineman is wired to protect. The running back is wired to avoid others and run over those who can’t be avoided. The mind-set of a defensive lineman is to catch and tackle others aggressively. The mental focus of a quarterback is to hang tough and do whatever it takes to deliver the ball to another player.  A kicker is focused on accurately placing the ball onto various sections of the field or through the goal posts.  

A leader must understand the gifts, perspectives and roles individuals can contribute, and must motivate and inspire them to participate as effective team members. to achieve the mission that matters most. Are you the type of leader who can coach your team’s diverse perspectives and viewpoints so they achieve cooperative synergy to win for the organization?

Three-dimensional leaders have these capacities: 

1. to focus long term on the mission the organization is relying upon them to achieve, while avoiding distractions; 
2. to rally resources so people reach their collective potential, and 
3. to convert within the context by strategically guiding the organization to adjust to the ever-changing relevant variables that impacts how the business must operate.  It is this mission, resources, and context (MRC) focus that provides tremendous outcomes for organizations. 

Two-dimensional leaders only perceive just one or two of the MRC operational elements. One-dimensional leaders do not focus on their organizations’ missions, but are enticed by distractions, overwhelmed by insecurities and/or consumed with name recognition, and the perks of power and control.  One-dimensional leadership is all about “me” – not the mission!

Great leaders demonstrate the character and competence to achieve the MRC three-dimensional capacity.  Leadership character means 

• resisting temptations to move the organization in directions that detract from its mission and purpose for existing; 
• knowing how to work with others in open, honest, and selfless ways to motivate what makes the organization successful; and 
• objectively analyzing variables to know which are relevant, and pursuing effective courses of action in relation to them.  

To achieve this three-dimensional leadership capacity requires the ability to “Submit Ego to the Mission” (SEM).  


Many people talk mission, but few keep the best interest of the organization at heart and walk out processes that are consistent with that day in and day out.  Many people say they make the best use of organizational resources, yet they mistreat people, who are the most valuable resource.  Many say they are objective, yet they allow others to leverage relationships to undermine what is best for the organization.  Are you a SEM master?