@work - leadership
- takenfromabook
- Apr 19, 2017
- 3 min read
Here are the outmoded ways of thinking from twentieth-century leadership:
The only way it will be done right is if you do it yourself: This displays a lack of trust for teammates. It also brings into question what is the “right” way. What is right is a matter of perception and there is often more than one right way to accomplish something.
If you give just a little, they will take more: There is automatically an assumption of a conflict of interest and the thinking is a black-and-white, win-lose type of thinking.
Hierarchy is everything: It is not the objectives of the organization, but personal positioning within the hierarchy that matters the most. Success is based on climbing the corporate ladder and leadership is from the top down.
It’s all about who is right: There is a definitive line drawn in the sand separating who is right and who is wrong.
Dominance is key: This type of thinking is left over from the more instinctive days of the animal. If we can dominate those around us, we will rise to the top of the hierarchy.
Set a good example and all is well: Good examples have a place in education, but when it comes to the relationships among adults, it is not enough. You don’t need to just set a good example, but motivate and inspire those around you to do better and be more.
Weakness should never be shown to those around you: We come from a culture in which the leader is the strong one. To show vulnerability was to show weakness, uncertainty, and would lead to failure because no one would follow someone who was uncertain.
A strict culture is required: Individual behavior must be controlled by rules, customs, values, agreements, and norms. Obedience is all-important. It’s about forcing people to fit into a narrowly defined pattern of behavior.
Scarcity of information: A focus on the prevention of sharing information with others, which results in a culture of mistrust for the benefit of profit and personal gain. In this culture, there is less willingness to listen to what others have to say and it leads to the development of a silo mentality in business in which departments keep to themselves, rather than sharing information and working together for the greater good.
Competitive environment: People tend to fear losing a position of authority and superiority. There is a need for formal confirmation of position and intense competition not only to remain in a current position, but to move ahead.
The time has come for leaders to be more focused on their customers than on the bottom line. These days, leaders must be able to do the following:
Align employees around the mission and values of the organization, rather than trying to force their commitment via rules and the demand for compliance.
Empower people at all levels of the organization to become leaders, using a system of accountability to ensure the goals of the organization remain the central focus. Ensuring people are accountable to themselves and the customer reduces or eliminates the need for a direct report.
Serve the customer is a concept that is replacing the idea that serving the shareholders is the most important function of the organization. Employees will be far more motivated by serving customers than by trying to increase the profits of shareholders. When customers are the focus, they will keep coming back. It is satisfied employees and customers who will ultimately increase the bottom line.
Collaborate within the organization to ensure that complex problems can be provided with lasting solutions. The silos must be torn down and replaced with a collaborative atmosphere, which ensures that employees within the organization collaborate with one another (even across departments) and with customers, suppliers, and competitors. Cooperation must replace internal politics.
Go with the Flow of Change. Change is all around. You can fight it or try to avoid it, but if you do, you and your organization will fail. With change, comes new opportunities and new ways of seeing the world. Take advantage of this change to connect with your employees and customers and with the world as a whole.
Be resilient. Understand that you will make mistakes and so will your employees. The more innovative you are, the more mistakes you will make. But you will learn and grow from the mistakes you make. You will make a larger, longer-term impact when you venture into the unknown, trying new methods of accomplishing your goals, rather than doing things the way they have always been done. The more resilient you are, the more confidence you can have in the risks you take.