Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Lead with fear?
Have you ever worked with someone who leads with fear? When I mean lead with fear, it does not mean that the leader is constantly afraid of anything. It’s more like he is using the authority to lead the people under him, by constantly scolding them and threatening them – pretty much like a master and a slave. Some people call this the “military style leadership”.
But is this the right way to lead your people?
In my humble opinion, NO.
I rather lead with respect, and not fear. If your people are constantly afraid of losing their jobs (or afraid of being scolded in front of everyone in the office), they will STILL be able to work hard but the atmosphere is different if compared with people who are working for you because they love to work for you.
Totally different working environments and the end results will be totally different too. Let’s try to summarize the 2 types of leadership.
Lead with respect
• People willingly work for you
• The environment will be friendlier
• The people will be motivated and work with good morale
• Turnover rate will be lower since a good and respected leader can really keep his people
Lead with fear
• People will only work with you because they have no other choice
• The environment is quite hostile and negative since everyone is afraid to lose their jobs (or get scolded publicly)
• People will be moody and pretty much demotivated, even though they will still do the work
• Turnover rate is very very high since everyone will try their best to get out from there
From what you can see, most of the things associated with the latter are bad things and yet, there are many leaders out there who prefer to use this way. Perhaps it’s due to the way they’ve been brought up in the corporate world, or perhaps it’s due to their ego. But either way, it’s bad for the employees and also the organization itself (having high turnover rate is not a very good thing to have in any organization).
For me, the keyword here is “respect”. Respect other people and others will respect you. If you cannot even understand that simple word, then I doubt you have the rights to lead.
p/s... and in an extremely stressful environment, the last thing you want to do is to force people to do things they don’t want. Everyone has their limits and as a leader, you need to know that.
But is this the right way to lead your people?
In my humble opinion, NO.
I rather lead with respect, and not fear. If your people are constantly afraid of losing their jobs (or afraid of being scolded in front of everyone in the office), they will STILL be able to work hard but the atmosphere is different if compared with people who are working for you because they love to work for you.
Totally different working environments and the end results will be totally different too. Let’s try to summarize the 2 types of leadership.
Lead with respect
• People willingly work for you
• The environment will be friendlier
• The people will be motivated and work with good morale
• Turnover rate will be lower since a good and respected leader can really keep his people
Lead with fear
• People will only work with you because they have no other choice
• The environment is quite hostile and negative since everyone is afraid to lose their jobs (or get scolded publicly)
• People will be moody and pretty much demotivated, even though they will still do the work
• Turnover rate is very very high since everyone will try their best to get out from there
From what you can see, most of the things associated with the latter are bad things and yet, there are many leaders out there who prefer to use this way. Perhaps it’s due to the way they’ve been brought up in the corporate world, or perhaps it’s due to their ego. But either way, it’s bad for the employees and also the organization itself (having high turnover rate is not a very good thing to have in any organization).
For me, the keyword here is “respect”. Respect other people and others will respect you. If you cannot even understand that simple word, then I doubt you have the rights to lead.
p/s... and in an extremely stressful environment, the last thing you want to do is to force people to do things they don’t want. Everyone has their limits and as a leader, you need to know that.
Labels: careers
just my 2cents at 2:52 PM |
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