For the next article, I had been about to hit a completely different topic. But having spent some incredible time with my incredible girlfriend in my favorite city of Zlin, I was on my way back to Mlada Boleslav, driving my car, listening to my self-motivation stuff by Jim Collins on differences between mediocre and truly great companies. I had listened to it many times thus far, yet everytime I put it in the cd player I sort of stumble upon something new, something more relevant to what is going on around me. This time, it was Jim´s take on the leadership capabilities of today´s managers. I played this part several times, and always it stroke me how simple his key remmark was: in case you feel you are the right person on the bus, your contribution to the company is merely voluntary. You know what to do, what your goals are, what should be done and why. You don´t need others to motivate you simply because you be able to motivate yourself accordingly to your own personal values, attitude and qualities. In that case, my gosh, do we actually need a manager who is doing nothin´but "exercising his or hers power"? Ehmmmmm, I DON´T THINK SO. In fact, right now, we are living in a completely new world that is called "the power of choice/the world of many options". Indeed, if you are sitting in the right seat, but on the wrong bus, there is no reason whatsoever why you couldn´t say "enough for me, I´m changing the bus", right? So it that case, as I´ve mentioned above, our contribution to a particular company is merely voluntary. And those right people in the right seats are all volunteers, for at any time they can stand up and go somewhere else. Now WHO is THE GUY who should hold the right people on the bus? Bingo: the manager. And bingo again: is the "power exercising-type-of-manager" the right manager to do the job? NO, it´s not! It´s the leadership type-of -manager. Allright I hear you--how to hell should I judge on what type of manager is my boss like..? A simple solution for that--try the easiest way by asking yourself an easy question: your boss/manager lost his/hers exercising power, would rise a hand for him/her becoming a leader again? Would you like to follow the guy anyway? There you go.
To be fair and realistic, you probably cannot change your own bosses every month. It pretty much depends on how big the company actually is, how the company´s culture works, or just how and if there is any feedback from the people upwards. What you can do at least is adressing your boss by asking the right questions, demanding clear rules, competencies, criteria for success etc. The more you will get your project under your control, the more indispensable you become. Responsibility is the key word. Don´t be scared of it.
