SUNDAY THOUGHTS: ON THE JOB

Nah, Leaders. Nope. Tell the truth. You don’t just want employees to be faithful. Faithfulness isn’t the only attribute you prefer, but you do tend to trot it out when you’re bothered by someone’s departure, or demanding blind loyalty and compliance. Being consistently present can’t be the principal thing.

You want people to be competent, intelligent, qualified, and confident, too. You want them to have a reason to be invested in the organization, that’s rooted in their good character. You want them to care about the quality of their own work, and how it benefits the whole— not just you. Their excellence will often be attributed to you, and you know full well that you couldn’t execute their job on your best day!

You say (and threaten) that it’s easy to replace people, and it’s even easier to find eager people who’ll do the work for less, but why would you even lead with that attitude? Seems kind of manipulative, don’t you think? So, you’re just assigning duties to, and collecting the desperate, the beholden, the unqualified, the opportunistic, the anxious people pleasers, and the yes men? Oh, they are there, alright, bowing and grinning, and nodding on cue, but have you noticed that you have to constantly micromanage, make excuses for, clean up after, berate, and correct them? You already know that you can’t trust that they’re going to make wise decisions, follow directions, or follow through! You have to have your hands in everything? Is that the plan? Being surrounded by dutiful idiots who are prone to embarrass you, is not a flex.

I was reminded of something my Dad used to say: “If you’re a leader, and you’re not training and mentoring somebody to take your place, you’re not leading. You have a fan club.”

A problem arises when you, Mr. or Ms. Leader, think people belong to, or should be beholden to you. You can’t be insecure, or envious of people’s abilities, the attention that their ability brings, and the expectation it garners for maintaining standards, efficiency, and acknowledging actual skill. Devaluing people, gaslighting them, and expecting them to play small, is an indication of the state of your heart, not theirs. Applauding and promoting mediocrity, in their faces, doesn’t make the competent person sad, or look bad. They are fully aware of what effectiveness looks like. It’s what they’ve studied, practiced, worked for, and always aspired to achieve. Your undue criticism of, and unwillingness to treat them as the adults and accomplished professionals they are, just frees them to exit, and unite with people, and explore places and spaces that value and encourage what they have to offer, as opposed to people who unnecessarily compete with, belittle, and aim to control or own them—and their gifts and talents. 

A leader who doesn’t recognize or utilize the resources that are right under his or her nose, and prefers to marginalize or demonize them, will soon become bored with, and  resent the previously lauded faithful, for lacking skills they never had. That’s not logical nor fair.

Playing games and pitting people against each other, may be amusing, but that revolving door of competent people, isn’t (and neither is witnessing the destruction of a once respected, thriving organization).

#currentevents