It drives me through a wall when I hear stories about managers, supervisors or team leaders that continue to believe they are Stalin and want to rule with the Iron Fist.

This form of management or leadership style doesn’t work anymore. Get over it and get with the times!

Too many times we handle the employee-manager relationship from a “top-down” approach where fear and control is used to manage people. This may have worked in the 40’s and 50’s, but I promise you with every ounce of my body, that it does not and will not work today.

People expect to get treated like human-fucking beings whether they are in or out of the office.

Yes, I dropped the “F-bomb” but it was much needed to drive my point across on a topic that I’m passionate about. As a former leader of two different teams, with two successful and credible companies, I learned that truly caring about the individuals on my team and treating them like they are people and not just a cog in the big machine was what allowed them to produce more and most importantly, be happy. Think being happy isn’t important in the office? In an article published by Business Matters studies show that, “65% of people are unhappy at work, only 14% understand their company’s strategy, and 75% are seeking jobs as we speak.” Read that again; 65% of your team members are unhappy!

Now, explain to me again how being the tough-guy, asshole boss will turn these numbers around?

So, Santos, you guru of leadership and management, if my management style doesn’t work and my team isn’t happy and not producing, what’s your solution?

Look, lord knows I’ve made my share of mistakes when it came down to managing and running my teams. It’s part of the gig and I’m human. I’m not trying to be the oracle of all that is leadership. I’m simply stating that if we want our teams to produce and be somewhat happy-go-lucky at work, try using things such as empathy instead of fear, instead of pretending to be a “know it all” manager, be transparent and admit when you suck at something. Learn to inspire people and engage with them instead of telling them what to do and what happens if they don’t do it. Stop pretending to be “Macho Man Randy Savage” (in my top 5 WWE Superstars of all-time by the way) and learn to be ok with vulnerability.

“Being vulnerable isn’t about being weak, it’s about being courageous.”

Over the years I’ve worked with a handful of “leaders” who could never figure out why they weren’t getting the most out of their people, much less respected by them. To this day, I want to drag them into a padded room, lock the door and make them watch continuous loops of “Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood” until it beats the asshole out of them.

Your argument that Steve Jobs was a jerk and shit got accomplished is crap. Steve Jobs was a bona fide, once in a lifetime genius, you’re not, end of argument.

Every person that I’ve ever groomed or coached for a potential promotion I’ve taught two things: 1. Treat the team like humans and 2. Build meaningful relationships with them (click link). These are 100 times more important than the X’s and O’s of running a business or any other leadership strategy out there.

I truly hope that any of the individuals that I played a part in getting promoted remember this and implement it into their management style. It would be a business tragedy for them to go so far only to flop when it comes down to the one thing that matters most:

Real Leadership.

If this article brought any value to you, it would make me feel warm and fuzzy if you hit the recommend button. Thank you for reading!