Modern Leaders News, April 2024
What modern people want from their professional life
Spring has arrived in the North, autumn in the South. And large parts of the world have a different rhythm altogether.
But there is a rhythm. Nature moves fast forward, and still, it returns to where it was, more or less, again and again.
Does it count for everything?
Well, in nature, it does, at least when seen on a short time scale. But millions of years ago, everything was different, and in millions of years into the future, they will again be different.
It’s a matter of time. With time, everything changes.
The concept of leadership, however, changes so fast that we can almost watch it happen. At least we can see that it did happen, if we think back just a few years and compare with now.
There are different rhythms on different locations, and some companies need a bit longer to adopt new ideas — sometimes not even looking at them until other companies are already on their way to the next new idea.
But there is a rhythm. The concept of leadership moves fast forward and doesn’t come back, it is ever changing.
— Worth considering if you were about to say something like “This is how it is!” or “This is how it has always been!” in a discussion — because, you would be wrong.
A better attitude when discussing is to ask questions and think about how to change, which new direction will be the most reasonable, given the circumstances, which are always:
- Some things have changed already — you must update your mental model to match them.
- Other things are messy, with several ideas in play, and you could help find a concensus.
- And yet other things are bubbling out there, in the world, and need your attention — because, suddenly, they will be all around you, and you can navigate better by knowing them in advance.
So, this is the case for paying attention to what happens, what people think and do, and to be conscious about what you do — and at the same time, ready to adjust your thinking and direction.
This behavior is a must for a modern leader.
Current trends
Leaderless organizations or self-managed organisations have existed for some time, but the concept is still unknown to many. Let’s fix that!
Concepts
It often makes sense to compare leaderless organization with hierarchical organizations, as the latter are what most people think of as the normal.
Hierarchical:
Imagine an organization with 800 people, arranged in a hierarchy with several levels of managers, around 100 people in this role, and around 700 of them not being managers. Each manager commands and controls a team of people who rely on this manager to decide everything. The 100 are supposed to do all the thinking and planning, and they believe they must motivate the others, or otherwise, work will not happen.
Leaderless:
Now imagine another organization of the same size without formal managers. Teams are organizing themselves around their area of work. Each task will be initiated and driven by any individual in a mutual agreement by the team members. You’ll see 800 people thinking and planning for their tasks and 800 people collaborating and participating on various tasks. Most of them lead one or more tasks part of the time.
Thinking and motivation
Which of the two scenarios do you think will show you the most thinking? In which will you find the most motivation?
Hierarchical:
In the hierarchy, motivation is assumed to be given to people by a mix of whip and carrot, as the assumption is that they would otherwise do nothing and instead try to sneak away from anything that looks like work. They are being threatened or are at risk of getting fired or demoted as the whip, and they may get a bonus or a promotion as the carrot.
All this mainly based on their perceived results, not their thinking. There is always a risk of misunderstandings and deliberate mistreatment, since there would otherwise be a huge demand for being able to communicate thoughts and actions correctly all the time.
Leaderless:
In the leaderless organization, it is assumed that people are already motivated from within — they all bring their motivation to work — because of their knowledge of a field and an interest in doing something well.
Since they can express their knowledge and thoughts and carry them out as work while using their skills and getting support from their colleagues, they keep up the motivation.
Logic
Of course, 800 people being allowed to think creates more ideas and higher individual satisfaction than 700 commanded and controlled by the 100 thinkers.
The motivation is low in the hierarchy, because most people are treated as having lessser value than the managers and are limited in what they can do — and high in the leaderless organisation, because each and everybody is considered valuable and can contribute with whatever they are capable of.
Thriving
The hierarchy builds on distrust and a negative view on other people.
The leaderless organization builds on trust and a positive view on other people.
When you trust people and have and display a positive view on them, they thrive. When they can feel the pleasure of doing what they are good at — not being held back — they thrive.
Thriving is the basis of being engaged with your work. If you enjoy being part of the organization where you can achieve something, you will want to do it. An organization that holds you back and distrust you will make you focus on what is necessary, obey the command, and not more.
You could, of couse, also include considerations about what we humans ethically and morally have the right to do to each other. It is not all about effectiveness and maximization of profit.
Can you kill people, for instance, if that will increase profit or just please the manager? Companies did that in nazi-Germany.
Are you allowed to demand from the employees to work without safety equipment, leading to frequent deaths and injuries? It happens all the time, all over the world.
Thriving at work may be good for the business, but it is also — in my opinion — a fundamental human right.
Criticism
Criticism of the concept exists, mainly by old-school teachers at the business schools and the kind of leaders from business life who enjoy the power of a management role and do not care much about how well “their” employees thrive. They see power as a privilege of the skilled and that those without power are less skilled and will have to accept their situation in life.
Some of these critics genuinly believe that the top management in the company are who makes the company work, and nothing would happen without them.
Also, they often claim that the leaderless organization is a new idea promoted mainly on social media and without any foothold in the real world.
One recent book on that account is from 2022: “Why Managers Matter: The Perils of the Bossless Company” by Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein.
It is clearly not a new concept, however.
You may have thoughts about the other points of critics — like you may have thoughts on the approach of self-management or whatever it is called in different places. Please feel free to share these thoughts and take part in developing a modern understanding of leadership.
Thought leaders and reference books
I don’t know how long back it is possible to track the idea of joint leadership in books — even though I guess that the concept is as old as humanity itself — but it is an ingredient in Douglas McGregor’s book, “The Human Side of Enterprise” from 1960 — known for its explanation of Theory X and Theory Y.
While McGregor doesn’t specifically speak about leaderless or joint leadership, he does explain the value of seeing employees as self-motivated people with the ability to think.
“The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations” by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, which came out in 2008, is describing several organisations that worked with a leaderless concept, including such as Wikipedia and Skype.
“Beyond Empowerment: The Age of the Self-Managed Organization” by Doug Kirkpatrick from 2017 suggests an organization where all individuals have all the power they need with a couple of constraints: Keep your commitments and don’t use force.
“DamnGood Leadership: We are all Leaders. We are all Followers” from 2023, by Leise Astrid Passer Jensen and Brian John McCullen Dahl, is a complete guideline for leadership in an environment arranged around a leaderless concept.
“Made Without Managers: One company’s story of creating a self-managing workplace,” from 2023, was written as a team effort by the Maiden company, having Team Mayden, Alison Stugess-Durdon, Dr. Philippa Kindon, and Chris May as the formal authors. This book describes how one company, Maiden, transformed and now works with self-management.
There are many more books and articles on the topic, and many companies are actually doing it — it is not just theory.
Portrait of a writer on leadership
Sean Stewart is — in his own words — a “historical leadership expert who helps to leverage the power of the past to create better leaders.”
He is based in the USA and Europe but has seen the world, often travelling by sailboat. He displays a deep interest in ancient Greece and the ways of collaborating and developing teams at that historical place and time.
This profile has led to a long line of thought-provoking articles, projecting something we know in detail — the past — into new situations relevant today. Even though the world looks different now, people still have many of the same thoughts and ways of connecting when doing a task in common, so his approach makes good sense.
He often takes inspiration in known leaders from history or from today, at times finding unexpected lessons to learn from their actions or behavior.
Check out an example of his writing through this friend link (works for non-members): The Phalanx Approach to Business Leadership
You may also want to join his webinar, Embrace Psychological Safety: Elevate Innovation and Trust in Work Culture, with Tracie Lipscomb at LinkedIn on the 3rd of April 2024.
His latest articles in Modern Leaders:
These articles can be read by members of Medium.
- The Myth of Age — Breaking age stereotypes in pursuit of effective leadership
- All in One Boat: Navigating Team Harmony — Drawing inspiration from ancient Greek warships for effective teamwork
- How I handle conflicts in my team — Using lessons from the Spanish Empire
- Coffee House Leadership — How a simple change in setting can transform team dynamics
- Letting Them Go — Satya Nadella’s case study on leading with empathy
And he has written many more, so if you go to the site of Modern Leaders and search for Sean Stewart, you will be delighted to see a wealth of interesting reading and learning opportunities.
Stories at the Modern Leaders publication
March saw many excellent articles published in Modern Leaders, and I can only recommend that you will have a look at them.
The writers have different inspirations and thoughts, making it a diverse and content-rich expression of where we are in our understanding of leadership today.
Some of the topics touched were: Influencers and micro-influencers, the limits of power and energy, ageism, youthism, the need to show enthusiasm, what different agile frameworks does to culture, being inclusive, helping each other becoming high achievers, benefit from failure, design thinking, innovation, systems interaction design, objectivity, effective habits, workplace culture, and how to enhanche life by helping others.
My guess is that you will find at least some of this very useful.
A bonus article
If you are not a member of Medium, here is an article for you to read through a friend link — meaning that you can read it as a non-member.
This time, I have chosen, specially for you:
Storytelling, Passion, and a Nice Cup of Tea — How modern leaders succeed by thinking with people — not for them
It was written by me, based on a line of great articles by the Modern Leaders team of writers, putting together the trends from the articles and looking at how they differ from the often seen thoughts just a few years ago.
With this, you’ll have something to consider.
What is Modern Leaders?
It is a publication on Medium.com with the purpose of exploring “What modern people want from their professional life” — and what is a better way to explore such a philosophical and still practical question than asking writers who think and write about leadership and collaboration about their thoughts?
Modern Leaders gives room for many different thoughts — which is actually also the thought to have as a starting point: different people in a company may think differently about what they want from their professional life, so how can we arrange a workplace that gives room for the many different people and their needs and wishes?
I established the publication after reading the book “DamnGood Leadership,” by Leise Astrid Passer Jensen and Brian John McCullen Dahl.
I was involved a bit during the writing of the book — being interviewed as part of the writers’ research and also taking part in some proofreading activities — but the resulting book still struck me as revolutionary and yet obvious.
Of course we are all important, we all have skills to offer, and we are all motivated by nature to do a good job — if only the workplace is inclusive and pleasant.
At first, I thought about writing a series of articles about the book, but then again — the book is already there and explains everything exceptionally well, so what I could add would be a different thing — I could create a room for gathering thoughts and inspiration to supplement and further develop the ideas of DanmGood Leadership.
So long for now!
That’s it for this time — thanks for reading! Looking forward to meet you again through the next issue of the newsletter — remember to subscribe to it, so you will not be without :)
Yours,
Jorgen Winther
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