ISE Magazine, August 2019

ISE ICT SOLUTIONS EDUCATION 80 HUMAN NETWORK 2 Commanding and Controlling In power driven organizations hierarchy reigns and members of the management team are expected to take charge control subordinates and yield to the demands of superiors Historically this has been the right way to lead and for many decades it actually worked This model is flawed however and those managed by people who admire and enjoy this model atrophy and stagnate In workplace cultures where this type of behavior is rewarded the powerful take over and the powerless surrender When leaders and team members are expected and even encouraged to power up over others people in the organization often view themselves as pawns in the micromanagement chess game or simply as cogs in the organizational profit wheel They lose motivation and initiative and give less of their discretionary time to make the organization better Commanding and controlling is a vicious cycle and the only way out is to call it out and to inspire a new way to lead and a new way to follow 3 Opposing Others In oppositional workplace cultures there is often a root of overcoming obstacles that afforded the organization sustainability and success over years But what often got us here will not get us there and opposition is one of those elements of culture much like winning at all costs that turns the organization against itself In work cultures where members are expected to be critical oppose ideas of others and make safe decisions people drop into fear and suppress their ideas and creativity Opposition shows up in communication such as Yes but We already tried that and it failed I have been here for years and I know it wont work and No because While everyone ought to be singing from the same overall hymnal and work together in tolerance and engagement members of this type of organization spend far too much time navigating personalities and conflict rather than collaborating innovating and solving problems 4 Pursuing Perfection In other cases there are leaders of quality driven organizations who pride themselves with a commitment to excellence While that intention may have been initially pure and congruent with the leaders values all too often the unconscious underlying behavior that is fostered with this value is perfection In a culture of perfection people do not take risks they do not try new things and they almost certainly do not put themselves or their reputation on the line to color outside the lines Leaders of many modern organizations often stake their reputations on delivering excellence or superior service There are not many CEOs who would stand behind sending out sloppy work or delivering code to customers littered with errors but there is a subtle difference between standing for quality and being in pursuit of perfection Perfection by nature of its definition leaves very little room for risk taking and creativity in your When the need to win overwrites better judgement fragments and erodes core values runs over people and leads people to the brink of exhaustion it must be called out and new behaviors that promote and inspire must be integrated into the culture