Leadership in the Work Place

 We all of us feel the effects of the changing world of work. Loss of overtime, reduced workweeks, and even layoffs threaten everyone, especially during recessions. But, have you ever considered how leadership itself needs to change to meet these challenges? Do you think that when economy gets back on its feet, that leaders can go back to exercising leadership the way they did? If so, you need to think again.

 

Whatever your experiences were beforehand, the world of work will never be the same. It may surprise you to learn that the number one concern among leaders today is that they feel ill-equipped and ill-trained to lead. Why is that? Part of the reason is that the skills required to lead people now are different from what they once were. In other words, when old leadership styles are used, people don’t respond the way they once did.

Leaders can no longer assume that just because they’ve been put into a leadership position that people will automatically follow them. In fact, unless people are coerced, which really isn’t leadership at all, most will chose to follow only those they want to follow. The best followers are those who can’t wait to do so. Those things that are important to the leader are important to them. They want to be with the leader.

 

They want to emulate what he or she does. In these cases, it’s usually the charisma of the person that causes others to follow. His or her mission, become their mission. They will do almost anything for that person. The cults are built on this fact. Short of being “rescued” from them, followers in these groups will only leave if the person is seen to be just like one of them; that is, that their “mission” is merely a deception for something else that the leader wants.

As long as the person and the mission remain inextricably linked, however, the faithful will follow. But, at work, leaders shouldn’t rely on the force of their personalities to get people to follow. Charisma tends to override reason. It can pump up the fanatics, but not those on the fence; and it won’t wash with people who are used to thinking for themselves. Therefore, it’s all the more surprising when leaders mistreat and mistrust the people they expect to follow them.

 

Unless they are part of the fanatic faithful or are forced to “follow,” there’s no reason why anyone will follow someone who humiliates them, abuses, verbally or emotionally, or otherwise denigrates them in front of their peers or even privately. More than that, why would anyone follow someone else at work who failed to guarantee them a career? And this is the rub. Leadership in the past was “effective” because the people who worked for them expected to be there for their entire 30 or 40 year career.

Changing jobs more than a couple of times in career used to raise red flags about dependability. People followed because they wanted to get on in the company. They wanted to be promoted so they could be paid more. The system worked reasonably well until the Nashua Corporation told their employees in the mid-1980s that they couldn’t guarantee anyone a job for life anymore. At once, the floodgates were opened, and every company said the same thing: We can’t guarantee you a job for life.

No job for life now means that all potential employers are being compared to each other by those who might obtain a contract with them.

So, how do your different styles of leadership stack up? Are planning to lead people the same way after the recession as you did before it? Are you expecting the same results from your style of leadership as you have always had? The World Wide Web has made the world of work a much smaller place. Those who have a good experience in a company will tell their friends. Those who have a bad experience will blog about it or even name names in LinkedIn or on other social media sites.

 

Leaders today need to adapt their leadership style to fit the needs of the new workforce. Those who cannot will not be able to retain the talent they so desperately want. It makes you wonder why anyone would deliberately behave so stupidly. Dr Bruce Hoag Organizational Psychologist http://www.p-advantage.com Copyright 2010 Dr Bruce Hoag. printed with Permission.

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