Someone said that only people who can see the invisible can do the impossible. That shows the value of vision. But it also indicates that vision can be an elusive quality. If you can see vision for your team, then your team has a reasonably good chance at success. Vision gives team members direction and confidence, two things they cannot do without.
Without a challenge, many people tend to fall or fade away. You must have a long-range vision to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures. Vision helps people with motivation. That can be especially important for highly talented people. They sometimes fight lack of desire. That's why a great artist like Michelangelo prayed, "Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish." A visionary compass answers that prayer.
Someone said that only people who can see the invisible can do the impossible. That shows the value of vision. But it also indicates that vision can be an elusive quality. If you can see vision for your team, then your team has a reasonably good chance at success. Vision gives team members direction and confidence, two things they cannot do without. People like to say they make rational decisions, but in reality, people are driven by emotions. Personal relationships greatly influence employees to become engaged, work effectively, stay with their company, and act as ambassadors for their organisation. Managers need to recognise that engagement is more than just feeling happy at work.
Engaged and empowered employees are fully involved and enthusiastic about their work and will act in a way that furthers their organisation‘s success. Employee engagement is a measurable degree of an employee’s positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, manager, colleagues, and the organisation that profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. Emotions toward the employee’s company and his or her direct manager are leading indicators of engagement in the workplace. Engagement often begins with employee empowerment. Build positive emotions and create a productive work environment that leads to employee engagement. Make the employee feel “valued.” Feeling valued promotes other positive emotions. Immediate supervisors are the key producers of positive emotions that can cause a stronger sense of satisfaction in an employee. Positive emotions increase a person’s energy and performance and make him or her more likely to help others (coworkers) complete tasks. Increase employee confidence. Feeling valued and confident simultaneously empowers people to make good work decisions and generates enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the key. When employees feel enthusiastic about their jobs, they try harder, go the extra mile, and even begin to think outside the box to perform a job or task. Enthusiastic employees are excited to go to work and be at the workplace. Employees who are enthusiastic about their jobs become excited to be at work, not only because of the pay-check or the next promotion, but because they care about the organisation and want to work to help further its goals. Engagement can be measured by an employee’s willingness to recommend their organisation as a place to work and a place to do business. Employee empowerment is important. Employees need to feel they belong to an organisation and are proud to be part of it. Those who connect emotionally with an organisation feel a sense of ownership and are more likely to stay with the company, enabling them to deliver superior work in less time and reducing turnover cost. Why do we tolerate and follow toxic leaders?
For most of us that question is too painful to confront. Our fear of losing income, reputation or self-esteem edges us into compromises that damage our hearts and souls. We are willing to bear these burdens and accept these scars because the alternatives frighten us too much. How can I sacrifice my family’s wellbeing or feed my children if I’m constantly marching away from positions that upset my fragile moral frame of reference? Life is hard, so I just need to put up with my bullying boss ... right? And it is true: many leaders suffer from some degree of toxicity. Bullying and Commanding Bullying involves things like unfair treatment, public humiliation and other forms of threatening behaviour. While some bullying is straightforward, other behaviours can be subtler yet still create toxicity. These include undermining one’s position or responsibility, falsely taking credit, spreading rumours and half-truths, and social ostracism. Whenever a leader commands, the power dynamic shifts and can become problematic. There is a thin line between commanding and bullying. Bullying can involve shouting, swearing, name-calling, malicious sarcasm, threats to safety, or actions that are threatening, intimidating, humiliating, hostile, offensive or cruel. To cement their position, bullies evaluate performance unfairly, deny advancement, steal credit, attack reputations, give arbitrary instruction, and even assign unsafe work. They can interfere, sabotage, undermine, and encourage failure. The underlying phenomenon often identified as workplace bullying can result in physical as well as emotional and psychological disorders, including a diagnosis such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Toxic Ambivalence: Toxic leadership does not necessarily require intentionality—it can be accomplished quite effectively as a sin of omission rather than commission. Simple ineptness and rank incompetence breed toxicity in their own way. Followers experience frustration where managers do nothing. It is easier to recall occasions when we have been bullied than it is to remember when we have done the bullying. In the midst of enthusiastically cataloguing the various injustices that another leader may have perpetrated on us, we might need to work through our own “due diligence” and explore our personal capacity as leaders for battering followers. Once aware of our problem, most of us will hopefully seek a solution, recognising that self-regulation is part of our job as a leader. However many leaders still refuse to confront the signs of toxicity and instead assault their followers until they are stopped or retire. Without this honest appraisal we have no right to complain about those who batter us. |
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