In cleaning out my office, I ran across a copy of “Employee Manifesto” written by Peter Block. Block’s words have never been more true, as companies adapt to globalization, outsourcing, and a new kind of workforce with Gen Y. More than ever, leadership must come from all corners of the company, not just at the top.

Note: I was not able to find "Employee Manifesto" on the Internet, so I’m assuming that what I received several years ago in email from a colleague is written by Peter Block. Certainly, it sounds like his writing in terms of style and content.

Employee Manifesto by Peter Block

In our efforts to create accountable, high-performing and satisfying workplaces, we most often think that if management would change, the institution would change. We persistently want our bosses to be our mentors; we want them to take responsibility for our development. We get upset when they do not act with integrity, or work well together, articulate a clear vision….Here are some wishes for myself and other employees that would balance the equation and support the transformation many of us seek.

1. Care for the success and well being of the whole institution regardless of how it is managed. Stop thinking the organization has to earn our loyalty. Commit to its purpose and its customers even if things are not perfect.
2. Mentor ourselves. Find our own teachers and support. Don’t expect it from the boss or Human Resources. Be willing to pay for our own learning, recruit our own coaches, plan our own continuing education. Stop thinking the organization is responsible for our development.
3. View our boss as a struggling human being, no more able to walk their talk than we are able to walk ours.
4. Learn how to run this business. Become economically literate. Know the budget-cost-revenue connection of everything we touch. Learn as many jobs as possible. Figure out what clients and customers want and how to give it to them.
5. Be accountable for the success our peers. Decide to support their learning and focus on their strengths, rather than be disappointed with their shortcomings. Be their mentor; see their weaknesses as an opportunity for us to learn forgiveness and tolerance. And if we get in battle with them over territory or budget, give it away.
6. Accept the unpredictability of the situation we are in. The future of the organization is a mystery and who knows how long these conditions will exist. Stop asking where we are headed. Today is where we are headed and that is enough.
7. Forget our ambition to "get ahead." Ahead of whom? Why not stop competing with those around us. The only hope we have for more prosperity is if the institution really grows. Besides, if we do get promoted, who is to say we will be any happier? My observation is that the higher you go in an organization, the more depressed you become.
8. View meetings and conversations as an investment in relationships. Value a human relationship over an electronic one.
9. Deliver on our promises and stop focusing on the actions of others. The clarity and integrity of our actions will change the world. Stop thinking and talking about the behavior of others. Let go of disappoointment in them and how they were too little and too late. Maybe they had something more important to do than meet our requirements. Similarly, no one else is going to change. They are good the way they are.
10. If change is going to happen, it will be us. Gandhi said that if blood be shed, let it be ours. We need to blink first. Shift our own thinking and do it for our own sake, not as a hidden bargain designed to control the actions of others.
11. Accept that most important human problems have no permanent solution. No new policy, structure, legislation or management declaration is going to fix much. Justice and progress will always happen locally, on our watch, in our unit, only as a result of our actions with those in the immediate vicinity.
12. Stop asking "how?" We all have the skills, the methods, the tools, teh capacity and the freedom to do whatever is required. All that is needed is the will and courage to choose and move on. And to endure the uncontrollability of events.
13. Finally, stop seeking hope in the eyes and words of people in power. Hope is for us to offer, not request. Whatever we seek from our leaders can ultimately only be found in the mirror. And that is not so bad."

Truly, the only power worth having is the one we have within ourselves. We hold ourselves hostage. And we have the power to liberate ourselves.

I have lots to say about each of these points, and will blog about them over the coming weeks and months.