Management Essay
Paul Lawrence
I Help Veteran-Focused Organizations Overcome What & How Roadblocks While Saving Time & Money | American-Dream Advocate | Veteran | Creator Accelerator
What do powerful people do?
Two bosses at opposite ends of the performance scale taught me a valuable lesson about power and influence.
One boss (I’ll call Sam) was an effective leader.?During the time we work together, he was regularly assigned larger roles, and was sought after by people both inside and outside the firm.
The other boss (Ben) was an ineffective leader. In today’s terminology, he was a toxic leader, often pitting employees against each other.
In different settings, both Sam and Ben ran a large unit in a big organization, responsible for many people and a sizeable amount of revenue.?By any measure, they were powerful people.
I never saw Sam issue an order to get the team to do what he wanted.?He spent his time enlisting support for his vision and agenda by explaining, teaching, and persuading everyone to go along because it just made sense.
I asked him once why he did this, pointing out that from his position he could just issue an order and that would save time.
His response – orders are one of the least effective ways to accomplish something.? As easy as it seems, it will take more time to deal with the pushback, than it will take to explain and convince a team to do something.
His wisdom rang true when I worked with Ben.? He enjoyed giving orders.? He was aloof, seldom explained, and enjoyed folks not meeting his unstated expectations.
An unforgettable example. One of Ben’s business better units had a leader with a very different style - engaging and approachable. Without notice, Ben fired the leader and replaced him with one of his favorites, which was announced in a memo. Performance suffered, key folks left, and this change was a distraction for six months.
Experiencing this range of leaders, with different approaches, made me realize when I was at my best, aligned and working toward the goals:
Ultimately, these formed my framework for influencing teams to change or reach objectives
For better and worse, Sam and Ben clarified my thinking on what powerful people do and how they influence others. In the business world, I found it was seldom command and control, directing, and ordering, but persuading and enlisting.
Final Point:
#Leadership #Management
GDIT Sr. Capture Manager- Department of Veterans Affairs Account
4 个月Thank you Dr. Lawrence for posting this interesting article. Toxic leaders seem to rise and get stuck (ala the Peter Principle). What advice would you give leaders who want to create this positive work environment? In terms of % of time spent, where should they focus their time--1) confronting/coaching leaders with Ben's toxic command and control behaviors, or 2) finding and promoting Sam's style amongst staff?
Employment Support Workforce Manager/Veteran Advocate
4 个月Great essay Paul Lawrence!
Chief Growth Officer at PGT Solutions
4 个月The paradox of power. Some know how to use it well, some don’t. Thus, the continued need to develop better leaders. I write about it in my book https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Leadership-Principles-Excellence-Working/dp/147878458X
Lifestyle Medicine Health and Well-being Practitioner - I can help people extend their Warranty on life and show them how to extend their HealthSpan without drugs. Like to learn how? Contact me!
4 个月Excellent article - thanks for sharing!
Fully committed to helping veterans and family members transition to civilian life and laser-focused on lowering the high rate of veteran suicide. Onward Ops Sponsor
4 个月Excellent article Paul Lawrence! Your well written example of different leadership styles PERFECTLY points out a lesson I learned years ago as I studied leaders around me: From some leaders you learn what to do and from leaders you learn what not to do. Often, the lessons learned of what NOT to do are more valuable than the lessons learned of what to do. The key is to never stop learning and applying those valuable lessons learned! TY for this, Paul Lawrence!