Leadership Debate - Don't be Hard Nosed?
"Old-school mentality of being hard nose to employees don't get you far: your job depends on them."
Everyone knows this to be the politically correct statement in job interviews. At least that has been my experience and I doubt if any professional interview would go well with the support in this day and age.
"What if an employee doesn't buy in?"
Wrong answer: " If anyone doesn't buy in, there is no value for my company. I will make this clear to him or her as a chance to buy in and stay, or get off the bus."
Right answer: "I will work with him/her respectfully to learn the reasons for not buying in, then even modify the expectations and support him/her to achieve them.
I once made the cardinal mistake of coming close to the wrong answer. I said, 'However hard you try, there are a very tiny fraction of the employees who don't buy in, and they may have to be let go eventually.'
And the HR executive was not impressed at all. She asked, 'Alex, how many employees have you fired in the last five years?'
In reality, I am all for the right answer above - to understand the objections and be willing to even modify the expectations, and to support them. But it is also an observation that in any change initiatives, there may be a tiny fraction, at least a teeny-weeny fraction, that won't fit into the future plans.
So I am not for being hard nose to employees: because they are a huge resource and the leader's job depends on them.
However, as everyone also knows, hard-nosed leadership style does exist in organisations of all sizes, even in some of the best performing corporations. That is exactly the point of the quote attributed to Steve Jobs with huge success in LinkedIn recently: "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to to. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."
The title of the article is adapted from a recent conversation: "Old-school mentality of being hard nose to employees don't get you far: your job depends on them."