Leadership styles that include behaviors that exhibit trust, strategic visioning, inspiration, competency, direction, honesty, ethics, and sensitivity to the needs of followers provide a universally accepted positive leadership. Leadership is different from management and includes the ability to motivate, inspire, intellectually stimulate, consideration for employee needs, innovation, creativity, empowerment, and the ability to engage followers. Management, according to Northouse, produces order and consistency, while leadership produces change and movement.
Effective leadership is the ability to produce a desired outcome. Are your employees motivated and engaged in what they do? Are they excited to come to work? Are they producing the desired results? If your answer is no, then check your leadership style.
Leadership occurs at multiple levels of the organization. A person does not need a title to be a leader. Positions of authority or title often place individuals in roles of leadership. How this authority is used and the style of leadership is dependent upon the person in that role. If you find that you have to remind people that you are the boss, you might want to re-think your leadership style. Making statements such as: I’m the boss, you have to do this or I’ll write you up, I’ll dock your pay, etc. is coercive leadership.
What you are really saying is that employees must do something your way or you will punish them. You may get the desired results for a while, but you create a negative culture at best and at worst a hostile work environment. Leaders influence and inspire rather than use coercive tactics. There are times when leaders have to make definitive hard decisions that some people will not like. A wise leader carefully understands the strategic vision and purpose of the organization and inspires everyone to remain on that path. If a staff member cannot settle into the vision and purpose of the organization, he or she may not be an appropriate fit with the organization.
Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y are based upon the perception that a leader has about his or her followers. A Theory X leader sees employees as lazy; they hate their jobs; they have little ambition; they have no initiative; and they are untrustworthy. As a result, the leader must closely supervise, develop a hierarchical and punitive environment, implement an incentive program to gain extra effort, limit employee potential, be very restrictive and not trust employees. Conversely, Theory Y leaders believe employees are ambitious, self-motivated, self-controlled, enjoy work duties, and possess problem-solving skills; thus, much freedom is given to employees because leaders believe people want to do well, are motivated by the satisfaction in a job well done, are committed to their work, create possibilities, and are worthy of trust.
Micromanagement happens when leaders assign tasks or delegate responsibilities while giving minute details they feel need to be addressed instead of releasing the responsibility. Typically, micromanagers justify their actions by saying, “I just want it done right.” R. D. White calls micromanagement a compulsive, behavioral disorder that is similar to other addictive patterns of behavior and says that micromanagers do so out of their own self-doubt and insecurity. White says that micromanagers are addicted to controlling others and calls this an organizational pathology.
According to White employees under micromanagers are exploited instead of inspired; the organization is dumbed down since the micromanager fears competition from better ideas; good employees leave and more drones are hired; there is a downward spiral of morale, skill, and productivity; employees become fearful of constant criticism—even if unspoken, they no longer risk bringing their own creativity to the organization; and as they become frustrated, customer service diminishes. Theodore Roosevelt, quoted by White says, “The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” Think about the kind of culture your leadership style creates.
An employee once asked me, “Why is it that when you assign a responsibility you don’t give me details and the other leader tells me every little detail when assigning a task?” I responded with, “I know you are intelligent, capable, and can figure it out. I also know, if you have questions you will ask me. I know that you will accomplish whatever I put before you excellently.
Why should I stifle your own creativity by insisting you do it my way?” Voltaire is credited with this proverb: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” Creative employees might do it better than I could and that makes me look really good because I hired them. When you go behind employees fixing what you perceive is wrong to make it right you destroy trust and respect. Employees begin to feel they can never meet your standards, and this creates an insecure, distrustful relationship, and creativity becomes stifled.
When you praise employees about how wonderful they are, and then go behind them fixing perceived inadequacies you send a mixed message. They will accept what you do rather than what you say. If you tell other administrators behind closed doors that you don’t trust an employee or that you have to watch employees to keep them honest, then you have a serious trust issue. Trust from a leader is followed by trust from the follower. If the leader does not trust, they become untrustworthy in the eyes of the follower.
Self-awareness is an important responsibility as a leader—may be the most important responsibility. Self-awareness is the process of knowing your own weaknesses and strengths and understanding the impact these have on people around you. It is the understanding of your personal core values, identity, emotions, motivations, and goals and objectives that drive you. This is personal understanding at its deepest level. It is a necessary skill for a leader and leads to emotional intelligence.
There are two parts to the concept of emotional intelligence—personal competence and social competence. Personal competence includes self-awareness and self-management. Self-awareness is the ability to understand the underlying tendencies and your own emotions as you engage in a situation. This is the ability to say, “I’m worried about… and because of that worry I have a tendency to want to control all of the details.” Self-awareness if the first step to changing behavior. Self-management is what happens when you act or you don’t act. Self-management restrains your reactions to situations and people and tolerates uncertainty long enough for you to explore and understand your own emotions before you react. It’s managing your natural tendencies.
The second part of emotional intelligence, social competence, starts with social awareness. Social awareness is the ability to be aware of the emotions of others and understand what is going on with them. Through listening and observation, you absorb critical information. Relationship management is using your understanding of your own emotions and other’s emotions to manage interactions effectively. This understanding helps you understand people and treat them the way you would want to be treated.
If you find the climate of your organization is uncomfortable, the morale of your staff is poor, or a general malaise has taken control, examine your leadership style—first. Be brutally honest with yourself. If you recognize your tendencies to be a micromanager re-read the list from White’s article above. If this is how it makes people react, and I believe it does, then work on your emotional intelligence!
To raise the morale, improve the climate, and get rid of the malaise will take the hard, consistent work of a
dedicated leader.
References
- Bradberry, T. and Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional Intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart, San Diego, CA.
- Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and Practice. SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
- White, R. D. Jr. (2010). The Micromanagement Disease: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Cure. Public Personnel
Management, 39 (1).
Montessori Leadership / 2015 / pg 27
