If we aspire to or are in a position to lead and manage others there are several important questions to be asked. For instance, we need to ask ourselves, “What kind of relationships do I want?” and “What kind of organization do I want?”. If our model of leadership is coercive, meaning we manage by wielding our power and assume responsibility for not only group decisions but also enforcing all the rules, there is a high price to pay. We don’t have to look very far to see the consequences of those who have tried to maintain total control over everyone and everything. Bars, hospitals, and graveyards are cluttered with those whose worry and anxiety have broken their spirits and their health. A strong, effective leader is not one who tries to exert their power and control. Trying to manage that way becomes counterproductive and destructive both professionally and personally.
Another consequence of using power and position to manage is the toll it takes on both individual and team initiative. If we perpetuate an environment of tight control from the top we risk becoming an Executive Babysitter, depriving our staff from opportunities to become self sufficient decision makers while relieving them from the obligation to solve their own problems. Managing by power and coercion not only overloads our wagon but creates what’s akin to a dependent, non-thinking class who can quickly lose their desire and initiative. Nothing creates a line of shuffling clock punchers faster than a manager who thinks power and coercion are the keys to leading a team.
Power-based authoritarian leadership can strike out for another reason: it creates barriers and squelches communication from below. In such an environment team members tend to cover up their mistakes, lie, and become detached. Healthy, constructive feedback is essential to successful organizations, but a power wielding manager can soon become isolated and deprived of valuable information from his team. One way communication from the top is a road map for sub par performance and eventual failure.
Power based leadership can create a climate of drudgery, an atmosphere of the proverbial grind. The workplace can acquire a stifling feeling of oppression choking out the possibility of having fun and actually enjoying one’s job. If the team is deprived of the opportunity to participate, debate, have input, and be respected and trusted for their abilities the costly ogre of rapid turnover can rear its ugly head. Today’s workforce demands that its human needs be met and will keep moving in search of a work environment that meets them.
Finally, we have an obligation to encourage others to grow and maximize their skills and talents even if they are at the end of the production line packing and shipping boxes. As effective managers we serve others best by creating an environment in which our
team members can exercise their initiative and independence, learning to think creatively and solving their own problems. Instead of viewing our positions as those of privilege, prestige, and power, it better serves our needs, the needs of others, and the bottom line of our organization by thinking of ourselves as a “helping agent”, a builder of teams, and a respecter of persons.
Originally published in Beaumont Business Journal, Heat And Humanity Column
