In today's business lexicon, the word "Leadership" is one of the most used and least understood terms heard in boardrooms, bathrooms, and bar rooms. Everybody's talking about leadership but few understand what it really is or how to bring it out in their organization. The authors believe that most of us fall far short of what we are capable of doing and that qualifies us as 'Underachievers’. This book is written for us! The Underachiever's Guide^TM to Leadership is a no-nonsense, 'how-to' approach to becoming a leader and creating leadership in an organization. There's a catch, though. It's written in the contrarian. What that means, is that this book tells you everything you need to know about how NOT to do it! As you move through the pages, you learn exactly what leadership is all about, but you learn it from the examples of how it's NOT done well that we all experience and live with in our homes and offices. As you discover what makes up character, and what followers, situational awareness and communication are all about, all from the opposite viewpoint, it becomes absolutely clear what is necessary to do it right. You’ll have a good laugh or two along the way as well. In the end, you'll want to re-read the book looking for all the subtleties you missed the first time, and you'll know what it takes to be a leader in the new millennium.

THE ROCK is a retired commissioned U.S. Army intelligence officer of twenty-six years, and former corporate president and chief executive officer. Hero of multiple military and business campaigns, he was tagged with the nickname "the Rock" due to his unwavering attitudes towards doctrine, discipline and life. The word has it that he may have gone deep one too many times! He has been accused of being too pragmatic by colleagues, to which he replies: "Oh yeah? Well prove it!" Present whereabouts unknown and nothing is known of his personal life. (Frankly, no one cares.)

DA JUDGE - Former educator, lawyer, corporate executive, monk, and still an all-round good guy. His record as a legal minion earned him the title of ‘Da Judge" and he has the distinction of being the only judge pro-tem ever to be impeached in the history of the bench. Whenever his decisions were overturned his standard response was "C’est la vie! I don’t think any innocent man ever hung because of me, so what’s your problem?" Last seen, he was searching for the Lily Langtree Saloon where he allegedly had a meeting scheduled with Judge Roy Bean.

In the previous chapter we reviewed those elements of Leadership having to do with followers and the conventional leadership styles that are to be avoided if we truly wish to live the Underachiever’s creed: "It’s all about Survival!" In this chapter we will examine four elements of situational awareness that must be understood in order to acquire the skills needed to successfully avoid doing anything significant in the organization.

RELATIONSHIP WITH SUPERIORS

The first element of situational awareness is the leader’s relationship with their superiors. It is a common understanding that conventional leaders are leaders because they get things done. They are people of character, as we have seen, that others look up to and rely upon to get the job done and to take care of their followers. The ability of any conventional leader to do these things is often times directly dependent and related to how well they get along with their boss. If the relationship is a strong, positive one, then the subordinate leader can be highly successful, because everything that they do or try to effect will have the support and sponsorship of their superior.

On the other hand, if their relationship is luke-warm at best, there will likely be much questioning, second-guessing, and, in general, tortuous achievements. In those situations where there is no real relationship or the relationship is openly hostile, the subordinate is not likely to be long for this world in the organization. In small companies this relationship is easier to read and is much more visible. The larger the organization, the more difficult it is to know what kind of relationship the conventional leader has with their superiors.

As a committed Underachiever it is critical that you know about this relationship, whether it be yours, or that of your leader. If you are the leader, as an Underachiever, it is always the best policy to keep your superior in the dark as much as possible about what you are doing and what is happening in your organization. In ‘corporate talk’ this is known as ‘low profiling’.

Being skilled at ‘ducking’ comes only with consistent practice. In a leadership position this means that you are rarely seen by your subordinates, and you communicate with your superiors only as frequently as necessary to keep them off your back. As much as possible, keep these communications ‘neutral’, that is, do it by ‘cryptic’ voice mail messages that leave more unsaid than spoken. It would be ideal if you could communicate via written memos exclusively so they don’t have the opportunity to ‘read’ your body language, voice inflections, etc.