Are You Practicing Management By Pressure?

Peter Drucker is known to have developed the concept of Management BY Objective and Managing For Results. Someone must have developed from these concepts what is called management by pressure. I believe it must state that when we apply pressure to people, we will get them to perform at their peak. So, managers adopted putting pressure of people.

Some try to justify putting pressure on their people as the way of startups. I disagree. Its not. Its an underlying individual challenge with self. One of the staff of a startup that is operated based on Management By Pressure had this to say, “Bento took everything from me-my sense of humanity, sanity, confidence, and trust.” Management by Pressure is manipulating people to do things for your success and robbing them of their self-esteem and self-confidence.

Techcabal in their article, Tyranny in the Workplace: The Chaotic Culture of Bento Africa, narrated how the culture of this organization robbed a salesperson of his humanity and sensibility and then fired him for “lack of cultural fit and poor performance.” This comes along with verbal abuses and threats of course.

Insecurity in leaders results in Management By Pressure. Management itself is the manipulation of people for the success of others. When the pressure is applied, it becomes destructive. Rather than pull people by a purpose, management by pressure pushes them with a stick. It uses fears to push people.

When you put pressure on salespeople to meet the sales target, the transfer the pressure to potential customers. They become desperate. Desperation leads to manipulation. You need to understand that everything in a business is about relationships, including sales. Sale is a relationship, not a transaction.

Management by Pressure makes the conversations a CEO has with his people more negative thereby creating an oppressive atmosphere that affects people’s self-esteem and mental health. A toxic environment buries the potential of people rather than unlocks it. It's important that CEOs adopt Leadership By Purpose that inspires rather than Management By Pressure that manipulates.

Leaders who embrace Management by Pressure are focused on their ego and getting things done at all costs no matter their impact on the people they lead. What they don’t understand is that the way they treat the people in their organization impacts a lot about the life choice the people make. Oppressive environments unlock the animals in people; they become inhuman towards others.

However, Leaders who lead by a cause create an inspiring environment that brings out the best in people. It makes them altruistic and caring towards others. An inspiring environment makes others the focus while a manipulative environment makes the self the focus of the environment. No organization can survive for long when everyone is focused on self: self-protection, self-preservation, self-enrichment, and so on. We get ahead by helping others. That is the Truly Human Way.

Take Ebun, the CEO of Bento Africa who fired his staff at will as reported by TechCabal, for instance. His decisions are focused on the self and the bottom line rather than care. What would a Truly Human Leader had done in the same situation assuming the staff was unproductive (lack of culture fit and poor performance)? He would have first considered why the staff was unproductivity. It could be the environment or the role. What if the person isn’t passionate about the role but about the company? There are many things to consider before firing a staff. Maybe the staff just needed to be reassigned to a role she is passionate about.

Skills can be learned but passion can’t. People can be skillful and competent but still, have their performance suffer if they are not passionate about it. That is why it's important to employ people who have a purpose or cause fit with your company. They are evangelists and advocates of your company. The environment inspires them to be passionate. They find themselves.

Inhumanity against humans is to fire an employee just to make you feel happy and in charge. The impact of that decision is most times not seen. It impacts the way of life of the employee. He goes home to his family who depends on him, bitter and angry, and spread that to everyone. He is unable to pay bills. His rent may be due. His inability to pay school fees could make his kids leave school. A lot happens when someone gets fired.

Running a business, the truly human way is a privilege of leadership. You have to see yourself as a steward (servant) of everyone in your organization. It's your responsibility to protect them and make them feel fulfilled and safe. It's your role to create the environment that inspires them and brings out the best in them.

To be a Truly Human Company you need to have a Truly Human Business Model (engine) powered by a Truly Human Culture (premium fuel) and driven by a Truly Human Leader. We are on a mission to transform businesses to be Truly Human Companies. Do you want your business to join the league of Truly Human Companies? Then let's start a conversation.

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