“What kind of leader do I want to be?” This is the question that leadership expert Meg Wheatley asks us to ask ourselves. She talks about the tendency of leaders in challenging economic times to resort to a command-and-control style of leadership, even though this is not what is best for the organization. In an interview Art Kleiner did with her for strategy+business, she said:
In most companies, we do not have (and I believe won’t have for the foreseeable future) the money to fund the work that we have to do. Leaders have two choices. One, they can tap the invisible resource of people who become self-motivated when invited to engage together. This approach has well-documented results in higher productivity, innovation, and motivation, but it requires a shift from a fear-based approach to a belief in the capacity of most people to contribute, to be creative, and to be motivated internally. Alternatively, they can continue to slash and burn, tightening controls, and using coercive methods to enforce the cuts. This destroys capacity, yet it is the more common approach these days.
This “more common approach” is being played out in health care these days. For example, hospitals are making deep cuts in nursing staff. I have no way of knowing if these layoffs are the only option for those hospitals. I do know that employee engagement and quality of care will suffer greatly in the process.
Regardless of evidence to the contrary, many executives, faced with difficult challenges to their leadership, almost reflexively, impose rules and restrictions on and increase monitoring of employees. The result is that employees put more time and energy into managing these controls and less into innovation and customer service.
