Misunderstanding 7: Leaders put profits before people
Fiduciary duty??
There is a school of thought which claims that a company's primary duty is its fiduciary duty to its shareholders. That money – the money of the shareholders – is the most important thing in the business. Therefore, a leader in such organisations has to make the tough choices for the sake of the whole business. If an employee isn’t performing, they must be got rid of. A company that isn’t profitable isn’t going to exist for long. Profits therefore must come before people.?
??
Epidemic of caring?
Is it really possible in the 21st century to still believe that? To believe that employees who fear losing their jobs if they don’t bring in enough money for the company are the most successful employees? That people, like robots, can produce outcomes based on targets and processes? That to bring anything else into the mix is to ‘muddy the waters’ and bring about ‘an epidemic of caring’??
??
Oh, if only caring leadership could become an epidemic. Then, the actualised potential of every human being really would be a genuine possibility.?
??
Perfectly imperfect humans?
Human beings are not robots. The pursuit of automation, machine learning and artificial general intelligence results from our frustration that we are not as flawless as we perceive robots will be. We are very flawed, and humanity, damn it, gets in the way of our productivity!?
The thing is, the human bit that annoys us – well, it is also the bit that means we can do things that robots cannot do.?
??
We have imaginations.???
We can create something that hasn’t ever been conceived of before.?
We can show compassion to another person or creature.?
??
领英推荐
Curiously, all those messy human emotions and spiritual crises ironically result in us still being superior to robots. Humans still bring more to the workplace than machines ever could because of our flaws.?
It is easy to see why the idea of replacing human beings and removing the problem caught on. But try following that logic further - we create smarter and smarter machines, which strangely seem to become more and more human as they evolve.?
??
Nurturing humans?
The tougher, yet ultimately correct, solution is to nurture the brilliance of being human so that every individual delivers on their potential.?
Rather than being clever and profitable, why not be wise and rich??
The building of yet another non-human that can make some people more money is inevitable. But it doesn’t have to be the only trajectory of development. Let’s also develop the moral, spiritual, and emotional qualities in our humans that unleash their life’s purpose.?
??
If you are a leader, put your people before your profits and feel the awe-inspiring satisfaction of a company reaching new levels of success and prosperity.
Author: Racheal Smith FLPI FRSA - Head of Learning at Entelechy
Previous articles of this series: