What’s happening to leadership these days? The number of
articles and ‘posts’ on the topic have increased exponentially over the last
decade advising current and wannabe leaders of the most effective behaviours to
engage in with their staff and how to inspire and motivate them for success – a
win-win for all involved. Yet this desired image of effective leadership seems
to be sadly lacking on the ground, in the actual workplace, all over the world.
In fact I’d suggest that leadership as a focused
‘technique’ is being replaced more and more with command and control type approaches
to getting things done – where people in positions of authority are reverting
back to being managers; and in many cases failing to lead all together.
I seem to be meeting more and more managers who lack the
very basic leadership qualities and who are quite happy managing for results,
rather than leading for results.
There are probably many reasons for this current trend,
including;
1. There is just too much conflicting literature on
leadership for anyone starting their careers to be sure what actually is the
most effective style or technique. This is mostly due to the over
commercialisation of the topic and sadly this trend is unlikely to end in the
short-term. Every week someone is coming up with a ‘new’ style definition of
leadership claiming ‘their way is different’ and in the end, as with over
selling anything, ‘we’ are devaluing the very basics of leadership.
2. We’ve always known that command and control styles that
mirror results orientated management gets the job done. It may not optimise your
long term growth or operating results; and definitely won’t lead to a motivated
workforce that is self-driven towards continuous improvement and innovation –
but then stakeholders and markets don’t seem to be that interested beyond ‘the
moment’ any more – so the old fashioned command and control approach gets them
what they want. With a labour market that has changed significantly in the last
15 years, managers are confident of being able to find people to fill jobs –
and since they are just looking for people to do as they are told – they take
the approach that they know their labour pool is healthy across most sectors,
so why care about people.
3. Where are the role models? And hence where do
youngsters pick up the basic values that contribute to great leadership these
days? The media, especially the news media, has also changed over the last 15
to 20 years where they will readily admit that they are in the entertainment
industry first and the news industry only second – as it’s all about ratings. Where
are the inspirational leaders like Nelson Mandela – a man who showed so many
strong characteristics and behaviours of exceptional leadership? Instead, for
example, our future leaders are exposed to a selection of potential US
presidential candidates verbally abusing some sector of society, as this is
considered more entertaining than anything else and considered news worthy
these days – and the young viewer is expected to be mature enough to see past
the ‘entertainment’ and not be swayed by the potential leader of the free world
not actually behaving like a leader should.
4. Who actually cares? Poor leadership has been becoming
the rule rather than the exception over a couple of decades now and it appears
that no one really cares. It seems to be part of the new accepted business
model that employees are not ‘committed’ to their organisation anymore, so
managers don’t need to be too bothered with the concept of inspiring and
motivating them – they are just there for a pay check, have little ambition and
will pretty much do as they are told.
Really? Maybe
that’s what poor leaders are telling themselves – but in my experience most, if
not all, employees dream of working for an organisation that cares about them;
and will create an environment where they can reach their full potential. It’s
the chicken and egg story – it’s because employees haven’t been led effectively
that they have thrown in the towel and decided “if you can’t beat them join
them”.
If organisations desire to be the best they can be then
they need to start paying real attention to their leadership approach. This
doesn’t mean going and asking employees what they think – as these employees
already operate in an environment where they don’t feel safe and hence will not
give an honest answer. Too many organisations are fooled by thinking their
internal surveys tell them everything is working perfectly and can’t see what
is really going on. It takes a very special CEO who will create the right
environment to identify the ‘real’ problems in his or her organisation and then
put in place the solutions to fix them.
If you’ve worked for a great, inspirational leader you’ll
know the difference it made to your whole approach to life – not just business
but everything. The energy that you felt working in this kind of environment
and how you actually enjoyed your job. It’s not just a short term thing; and
the inspirational leader creates the right environment that allows you to grow
and develop, often allowing you to find latent skills you didn’t even know you
had. This is a win-win for everyone.
And that’s the simple difference between good and poor
leaders – good leaders create an environment where everyone wins; the employee,
the organisation and the leader – where the poor leader creates a win-lose
environment where the leader wins and the organisations wins in the short-term,
but the employee loses and so does the organisation in the long-term (compared
to what their full potential would have been offered them).
Let’s get back to basics – let’s simplify great
leadership, so that it’s clear to everyone – and let’s put the
commercialisation on hold and build the next generation of great leaders across
the world. The more we confuse people about what great leadership is in the
workplace, the longer poor leaders will flourish.
