Leader-proofing

I was recently at a talk (about, as it happens, political blundering) when the speaker said that a sign of a good organisation is whether it is leader-proof. It occurred to me then that cult of leadership is indeed beginning to die its death.  After having had decades of alpha males running organisations as the Chief Entertainment Officer, people are starting to question the myth, perpetuated by business schools and head-hunters, that leaders are special. In fact, some are beginning to question whether they do more harm than good.  I have written in the past of how those who most want to become leaders are often the least suited to the role. Often they get caught up in the moment and start to believe in their own in supremacy.  They’re encouraged by a small coterie of advisers; add in group think and sycophancy and before you know it seems as if the lunatics have taken over the asylum.  As Warren Buffett once said:  “I always invest in companies an idiot could run, because one day one will.”

Another problem with the wrong sort of leadership is that it can lead to learned helplessness. Employees become so used to being told what to do that they start to lose the ability to think for themselves, either through fear of getting things wrong or out of lack of practice.  In many organisations, the strength of the top-down, command and control structure is such that decisions are constantly being upwardly delegated.  I know of one organisation where the power of the senior leaders was so strong that middle managers acted on the assumption of how their bosses would react and they’d simply not propose any option that they thought would get a frosty response.

The new leaders are those who see their role not merely as making decisions and being in charge. Rather, they recognise that leadership is about empowering people and creating the environment where decisions can be taken.  Yet in many instances, organisations are still only scratching the surface of the creativity of their people.  Most workforces today are full of technologically-savvy people who are keen to share and collaborate.  Businesses, however, are dominated by silo mentalities and a culture of management by results that inhibits rather than encourages cross-functional working.

One organisation, however, has taken leader-proofing to the extreme.  Video games developer, Valve, has no leaders.  Individuals themselves decide what to work on, where to sit, even how much each other gets paid.  Teams coalesce naturally around the best ideas.  Dialogue and creative thinking is at a premium, uninhibited by hierarchy or traditional structures. Obviously such a structure may not work everywhere, but it is interesting how there are those who see that there is another way to operate away from the normal pyramid-shaped, leader-led organisation.

In the meantime, leaders of traditionally-run organisations need to start to consider their own role in unleashing the power of thought latent in their organisation and held back by its structure.  They need to realise that the more that they give away the stronger their organisation becomes.  Businesses need leaders who embrace the opportunities that new ways of working offer and who can leave behind the old style of management.  Leader-proofing means not only liberating the creativity of the whole workforce but also of moving on from the old approach to leadership.  The traditional caricature needs to be put to rest.  As, for instance, John Cleese once said:  “I find it easy to portray businessmen.  Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.”

Willpower

I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a while but I’ve kept putting it off.  One day I may seek help for my procrastination problem.  To be fair, I’m not quite as bad as Goncharov’s marvellous character Oblomov who spends his day in his dressing gown surrounded by books and dust-covered papers, constantly resolving to start work.  The fact is, however, that more and more of us find ourselves putting off the things we’d like to do, or even need to do, in favour of either finding distractions or just doing the same old things.  It seems that it’s harder than ever to break out of the rut.

There are a number of reasons for this personal inertia.  One of them is the very modern problem of the tyranny of choice. The overwhelming number of options that we have for how we spend our lives and our spare time creates anxiety.  With too much choice we end up sticking with what we know.  We become more and more reluctant to try new things or to broaden our horizons.  We know we should try new things, fulfil our ambitions, or do what’s in our best interests, but we invariably stick to our old ways of behaving.  The great Flanders and Swann song, The Sloth, sums up this self-inflicted ennui rather well. (Don’t put it off, listen to it now! http://bit.ly/1diasIV ).

Linked to this is “busy doing nothing” syndrome.  We all know people who are so busy working that they have no time to stop and think.  For them working is a form of procrastination, postponing the real conversation that they ought to have with themselves about what they really ought to be doing.  These people are too busy to allow themselves the opportunity to discover their true needs and to follow their authentic self.  In a way, this endless cycle of activity is, in effect, inactivity.  As Jerome K Jerome said in his essay “On being idle”, one can only really be thoroughly idle if one has lots to do.  Being busy is often little more than a method of displacement from the real issue.

The pace of today’s modern life comes littered with opportunities for distraction.  The 24hr, invasive nature of the media means that few people ever delight in switching off. Many people are driven half mad by the demands placed on them by being constantly switched on and the expectations of an instant (and considered) reply.  Again, this creates a superficial world and with it a sense that if you’re not tweeting with the in crowd then you’re not actually part of society.  And if you don’t answer your emails on holiday or at one o’clock in the morning then you’re not totally committed to your company.

Once all distractions have been put aside one’s left with oneself.  Although this can be a lonely and disconcerting place to be, it is also the start of the journey to one’s authentic self.  Eventually, with focus, it is possible to learn to listen and hear what one’s true needs and ambitions are. Having established them one needs willpower to bring them to life. Willpower is a mixture of focus and discipline.  Rather than self-esteem, which is an outcome, the key to happiness and fulfilment is self-control.  The people who succeed are those who first find their true self and then set out to achieve their goals with purpose, determination and willpower.  Goals plus willpower leads to success. No goals plus no willpower leads to the same old same old.  

And as George Bernard Shaw said: "Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and, at last, you create what you will."