Leadership, Do People Matter

Leadership is one subject that is discussed across every workplace landscape, from the ‘out house to the hen house’. Each year approximately 4.8 billion leadership books are written, yet for such a popular subject, no agreed definition has been penned; rather it seems that there are more opinions and strong beliefs.?

If you ask me, in my humble opinion, I believe that the definition sits with an audience that seems to have no voice within this discourse. Perhaps the truth, or proposed definition from this audience (the follower) is too dangerous and indeed unwanted by the very people who call themselves leaders.?

The title of this article answers the question, in the majority of the books written and the ‘flurry’ of the activities spent promoting leadership the discussion about the people in the dynamic is a small percentage of the subject matter as a who. In real terms, could leaders lead without the people? Do leaders know how much they could achieve if their people believed and new that they mattered to both leadership and the organisation? As the great leader stands over their kingdom, shining the light (taking a selfie) of what they believe is the pinnacle of their success as a leader, each employee that works for the organisation goes home every day feeling like a useless ‘cog in a wheel’, wondering if anything they do even matters. Yet, if you take that statement to a watch maker, they will show you how important every cog is, that the most valuable Rolex need only lose just one cog and the watch as a who will no longer function.

I completed my undergraduate at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, where we were introduced to a book by Ricardo Semler titled ‘Maverick’. Published by Warner Books in 1993, we also watch a ‘60 minutes’ documentary where we saw the strategy played out in real time. In the ‘60 minutes’ interview, we watched Semler turn the organisation upside down, instead of managers writing KPI’s, he informed managers that from now on, employees will write the managers KPI’s, they will also decide what the managers bonus would be or not be. Half the managers left the organisation upon the announcement. Those who stayed are now working for a thriving organisation. Simply, Semler took the ‘Servant leader approach’ and across a thirty (30) year period introduced and pioneered a radical form of democratic management that has made Semco thrive. A system that has had over four hundred (400) originations globally visit Semler and Semco to see how their organisation could implement an employee focused leadership model. So the answer is ‘Yes’, people do matter and leadership should be defined as an activity that focuses the people that are being led, rather that the current focus on the leader.

In real terms, instead of paying Jeff Bezos whose net worth is USD201.7 billion, employees should be supported and share in the actual profit. #Truth if Bezos was the only employee who turned up, amazon.com would fail. Employees are the reason organisations succeed, so why are they not rewarded for the work they do?

In this brief article written as the basis behind the leadership presentation that I will be part of today, I am indeed promoting the position that people do matter and that leadership without people is nothing more than a title on a business card.

#EmployeeLedLeadership

When employees thrive, they don’t just do enough to keep their jobs, they don’t sabotage the organisaton that they work for, rather they thrive. They want to come to work. They become engaged and passionate about both achieving and exceeding their performance outcomes.

#AreYouAGreatLeader

If you want to know how good a leaders is, if you want to measure their success, ask the people who work for them, the followers will let you know what type of leader they are following. Perhaps leadership could be viewed through the following analogy,

Your employees are either stuck on a slave ship or thriving on a cruise ship.

What do your followers think of you..? If you are an employee, are you on a slave ship or thriving on a cruise ship; both are on the ocean, both are running profitable business, but the experience aboard the ship are worlds apart.?

#YourThoughts

I look forward to receiving your feedback.

Kurt