Leadership darwinism
In the case where a board can’t figure out to depose self-obsessed, autocratic and power-hungry managers, we’ll probably se in the future that these leaders will in principle be deposed by their own employees, who will leave for better workplaces with better leaders and leadership values, that create a better space for the employees’ personal goals and life visions to unfold.
This will leave the managers who use hierarchical leadership, control systems and autocratic leadership values without significant access to getting employees. Ie. a leadership with no followers, which is both pathetic and useless.
- Alfred Josefsen, CEO of Irma
Right on, Alfred – you tell’em :o)
There will be two kinds of darwinism operating against bad managers:
1) Employee selection: Employees will leave bad managers behind and gravitate towards better leaders.
2) Marketplace selection: Companies with autocratic old-school management are less efficient, and will loose market share to better-run organizations. In the end they’ll die out altogether.
If I had stock in a company, and wanted to make money out of those stocks, I’d ask the board of directors two questions:
1) What are you doing to make the people in the organization happy?
2) How are you training leaders to make themselves and others happy?
Positive Sharing » Jerks at work - and how to lose them Said,
July 20, 2006 @ 11:06 pm
[...] Leadership Darwinism [...]
Stressedmanager Said,
July 21, 2006 @ 9:05 am
When you say “leave behind”, I immediately thought “get another job”, but there’s an alternative: Employees have the real power, and the manager exists only to provide the right environment and guide the employees in the right direction. If the manager can’t grok this, let his boss know. If his boss is _any_ good, he’ll handle it.
Seriously, no one has to take shit from his manager, especially in IT where it’s easy to find a new job.
Alexander Said,
July 21, 2006 @ 9:17 am
I think you’re perfectly right and particularly in IT. I saw a comment by Cisco’s CEO yesterday saying each something like “most of our employees can leave tomorrow and get a 50% raise at a different company. They work here because they like it”.
A bad manager is not necessarily the one that starts out bad, but the one that refuses to heed advice and feedback from employees.
Is your boss a prison warden or a party host? Said,
September 8, 2006 @ 9:23 am
[...] The good thing is that the prison wardens in the business world are being hit hard by Leadership Darwinism and are slowly losing their followers to better, more modern leaders. They’re left with only those employees who enjoy this treatment or those without the drive or the skills to find new jobs. [...]
willworkfortoys Said,
February 6, 2009 @ 10:00 pm
Stressedmanager Said, “If the manager can’t grok this, let his boss know.”
Oh man… that is so HINELINEAN of you! I totally grok what you are saying!