by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®
“Yes, people want the freedom to decide where they work. But they also want the freedom to decide who they work with, what they work on, and when they work.” Dr Adam Grant, Psychologist at Wharton School of Business – as reported in Wall Street Journal review article ‘The Real Meaning of Freedom at Work,’ October 2021
Dr. Grant’s excellent article about “Freedom at Work” nicely complements this writer’s thoughts about “empower-ment at work.” Workplace people’s sense of autonomy is one of at least six powerful intrinsic motivators that have been written about so often. Quite naturally within any work environment there’s only so far one can go toward meeting people’s desires for more freedom, consequently finding the right balance is the trick for any leader or manager. The fact that people have different pre-dispositions toward desired levels of autonomy makes any balancing act even trickier.
Our current wrangle and mandates over Covid vaccines is a useful case in point. As many of those who are refusing to take the vaccines, and are prepared to lose their jobs over it – point out: they’re ultimately not against people choosing to take the vaccine, they’re really opposed to being forced to take it. They feel, since it’s their body, they should be able to decide what to put into it. Besides, a fair number of them have already been infected by Covid and recovered. Then they have been advised that they have greater immunity due to recovery from it than they would have from a Covid vaccine. So why “must” they feel compelled to have the Covid shot?
Such a real and public example conveys a clear distinction between conventional management (CM) and enlightened leadership (EL). All too often CMs are inclined to order or mandate that certain things have to be done and done in a certain way, which often causes their people to dig their heels in; that is, they are exposed to negative-extrinsic motivation. Whereas ELs will find ways to enable their people to feel empowered to do things as they see fit, through more positive-intrinsic motivation.
ELs believe much more in persuasive education than compulsion to get their people on-board. (NOTE: If it’s the correct position to take, even the laggards will feel convinced and thereby compelled to eventually come on-side.) Even this writer felt compelled to invest effort and resources into the computer world over time, even though he had pretty strong reservations at the outset. Sensible and insightful education is much more persuasive than mandates. The mandate position taken over Covid will leave a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths for a long time, even for those who felt pushed into it by job and income survival.
The initial middle-ground taken expecting workers to either get vaccinated or take regular Covid tests seemed a reasonable compromise. Even so, that had to be backed-up with compelling and focused education to increasingly nudge doubters along. Somewhere along the line the conventional management forces gained the upper hand over the enlightened leadership ones and so a more commonsensical approach was abandoned…maybe it came down to political expediency? The bad blood from such mandates will linger in people’s psyche for a long time: quite apart from the social upheaval that will play out in many people’s lives.
As an aspiring enlightened leader your take-aways from this valuable lesson are likely to be:
- Pay due respect to people’s instinct to choose where they work, what they work on, and who they work with – that will lay the groundwork for a sensible, reasonable compromise.
- Find common ground on the issue or task at hand – that makes people feel they’ve been heard.
- Educate them as much as possible on the pros and cons of your position – that helps them to more fully understand.
- Negotiate a sensible solution that they can live with – this leaves a better opening that they may come around to your position without losing their pride.
- Ensure that they have the best resources, equipment or tools available to meet the situation – that makes it much more conducive to accept a different approach.
- Empower them to proceed within a reasonable, agreed timeframe – that offers respect.
- Acknowledge their successes and encourage them to repeat the scenario where necessary – positive reinforcement will increase the chances of them embracing your next request enthusiastically.
Maybe if the powers-that-be had followed a similar approach over Covid vaccines the majority of the population would have become vaccinated within a reasonable period of time. Then with the final hold-outs or laggards, you would just repeat and educate until most would succumb to what’s in their best interest. Ultimately, empowerment holds much more promise than edicts or mandates: unless it’s a “certain” life or death situation.
To learn more about enlightened leadership, talk with: