The Crisis of our Times
As mentioned in my last blog, leadership appears to be one of the big issues of our times. Certainly laments for its lack, in both politics and business, as well as the plethora of writing on the subject in books, newspapers and magazines, suggest this.
It is possible, however, that this is simply the consequence of a world that has become too complicated, too fast-paced and too pressured – leaving us with a desperate need for new ways of surviving. Our inability to cope with the demands of daily life has us looking for someone who can lead us out of the wilderness and reduce the stress; and the inability to find such people leaves us bemoaning a dearth of leadership, simply because we don’t know where else to look or what to blame.
Theodore Roosevelt’s words, “The leader leads and the boss drives,” hint at this. Stress comes from being driven beyond the point at which you are comfortable and the pressure of modern life suggests that we are being driven rather than led. Of course they also imply the solution: hence the quest for new leaders and ‘better’ leadership.
Unfortunately, while telling us the ‘what’ of the solution, Roosevelt’s words do not help much with the ‘how.’ Yet their simplicity suggests that it is not as difficult as it seems.
The Leader Leads
As a leader your function is to create, maintain and sustain your organisation to fulfil the purpose for which it was created. This requires two major roles:-
1. Exemplar
The role of example setter/exemplar is self-explanatory. You should embody the values and behaviours you want to see in your organisation, because people will always be more likely to do what you do rather than what you say. It was with good reason Albert Schweitzer said, “Example is not the main thing influencing others. It is the only thing.”
You should never do what the new headmistress of a local school did recently. She scheduled a professional development day for all her teachers the day after school broke up but left on a ski holiday immediately herself and missed the training she had instigated. If people model the behaviour of their leaders, such obvious disengagement – particularly by someone new in the post – makes it unlikely that she will build the teacher loyalty and dedication she is demanding. And, if the teachers aren’t engaged, what do you the think the effect on the students will be?
I am sure you find that example as distressing as I do. You would think that it would be obvious to someone in her position. Yet this provides a warning that you need to constantly watch your own behaviour and guard against making similar mistakes. You have to “walk the talk!”
2. Enabler
The role of enabler/empowerer is more challenging, for often – due to embedded practice – your own systems are actually working against you and preventing you creating the shared vision and common purpose you need! So how are you going to meet this challenge?
You can start by reversing the mind-set that currently drives technological development and propels business process re-engineering (BPR).
New technology was rightly embraced as a game-changer, but introducing it was only made possible by the justification of the jobs that it would save. This made unwitting hypocrites of managers who lauded their workforce as “their greatest asset” whilst simultaneously managing them exclusively as a cost. This makes you a driver rather than a leader and undermines your leadership capabilities and perpetuates the decline in employee engagement. So to turn this around you must put your focus on your people: you have to start treating them as people and not “human resources.”
This is not something that you can decree. It is transformational change that demands a change in behaviour and therefore needs a mechanism to embed it. It simply won’t happen otherwise.
The Powerful Catalyst
The catalyst to do this is employee ownership.
The systems you have introduced have sped up processes to the extent that they demand people who are capable, competent and who care enough to make the right decisions. And, in order to make the right decisions (i.e. the decisions that are best for the organisation), and to give you the confidence that they are making the right decisions, your people have to understand and subscribe to the overall objectives of the business. What better way is there to do this and create the sense of the organisation as a team than by making them part-owners of the business?
Employee ownership is not a big step if you recognise that your people are actually ‘investing’ part of their lives in your business. Consequently giving them a stake does not have to be the ‘sacrifice’ and the redistribution of wealth that you may think. Rather it can create a new sense of partnership and teamwork that will engender better results than you have dreamed possible and create a win-win for everybody. It is not at all difficult if you think of them as people.
Employee ownership links the life-investment your people are making in your organisation with a sense of shared purpose. It serves as a catalyst to create the autonomy, mastery and purpose that will deliver the well-being and emotional equity to secure employee engagement and sustain better performance and better results. Autonomy, mastery and purpose are widely recognised as the three great intrinsic motivators. These provide the emotional equity that enables people to feel fulfilled and good about themselves; and that is essential if you want to have engaged employees.
Best of all, it will do so without any special well-being programmes or employee engagement initiatives. All these massive benefits begin by simply recognising that employees are people and treating them as such and not as resources! You remain free to adapt or modify your procedures in any way that you and your people decide.
A New Employee Ownership Model
If you wish to leave a lasting leadership legacy but are concerned about the difficulties of implementing traditional employee ownership schemes and the drawbacks that can come with them, you will be delighted to learn that I can offer you a new model. My model does not involve equity, and it does not entail any direct cost to the employees or the organisation. So why not contact me to find out more and whether it would be worth your while to work with me to implement it.