Giving up the perks of power
A big thank you to Susan Basterfield for seeding the idea for this post in a conversation a few weeks ago.
For an existing organization with a traditional org chart, making a move toward self-organizing involves a shift of power away from those who hold it by virtue of their spot in the hierarchy. Even if you’re not doing away with managers all together, actions like distributing authority and increasing transparency inherently involve loosening the grip on power.
Just one little problem with that — we like the perks of power.
The corner office (or any office for that matter). Having your voice and opinions carry more weight. Greater autonomy. Earlier access to information, and often controlling the flow of information. Authority to make decisions, including hiring, firing, and setting compensation. Maybe you fly business class, or stay in nicer hotels. Not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea — it’s good to be the boss.
This may be especially true in organizations whose purpose fails to inspire. ‘Yeah, we’re just makin’ widgets here, but at least I’m the Director of Widgetry!’
And yet…I talk with a lot of Founders, CEOs, and VPs who admit privately that being the boss isn’t actually all that great. For starters, there’s the feeling that everyone expects them to have all the answers, so they pretend to have all the answers, but deep down, they know they don’t have everything figured out.
Keeping secrets and talking in triangles (speaking with Person A about Person B) feels duplicitous. It can be hard to remember who knows what about which topic, who is supposed to know, or what you’ve promised to whom.
It can be exhausting trying to protect your team from less-enlightened leaders above and around you. Which is based on a questionable assumption that people need protecting, as if they aren’t adults capable of taking care of themselves.
Some find the pressure to be both a domain expert (e.g. Marketing guru) and a great coach/mentor to be unbearable. Then there are the never-ending meetings and emails and paperwork. Not to mention the burden of being accountable for an ever-rising, ever-elusive level of organizational performance.
Quite a few leaders feel stuck — they like the perks of power, and at the same time, they don’t love their roles. Of course they aren’t the only ones who suffer in command-and-control organizations. But until top leaders are ready for change, the organization remains stuck with them.
When the dissatisfaction of leading by hierarchy begins to outweigh the perks of power, then a move toward a new structure becomes possible.
See if you can notice your own circumstances at work — your relationship to power, and the ways you benefit. And then consider the ways the current power structure limits you, and limits the whole organization. Maybe it’s time for a change.
