Why Leaders Should Rethink Their Stand On Obedience
It will enhance their productivity
I’d ask you questions I’ve observed about obedience :
Is obedience supposed to make us effective and develop or make us timid and fearful?
It’s likely our answer will be something like obedience alludes to a person following the direct orders of an authority figure. We obey so that we will be useful to those who give the orders and become effective toward achieving particular goals. That’s great, but do you remember what we were taught as children?
We were taught to show our parents obedience and submit to their authority, then as teenagers, we obeyed but sought reasons why some things should be the way they are. We were damn sure about their love so we yielded due to trust.
The truth is, in some cases,you obey without qualms even if you find the orders morally reprehensible but yield when you’re convinced that your good is being sought after. It is all hinged on trust.
Obedience is effective when used properly and could you imagine were even rewarded when we obeyed as children.
Now as adults, there seem to be crises of obedience everywhere. You hear people complaining they dumped their bosses because they’re being treated like morons. Organisations spend huge sums of money to hire great talents in various fields, yet don’t allow them to make input when making decisions in those areas of their expertise. The reason being, "I’m the boss here and you have to obey what I say." Surprising, you’d conclude.
Is it possible to have a different opinion and yet obey those in authority?
Prudent leaders put this in perspective and in their companies they provide psychological safety where employees could disagree with the status quo without being called out.
What's the point when a person puts up blind obedience when carrying out a task but doesn't believe in the particular project? Is that project not destined to fail?
Often, bosses want you to obey because the orders are coming from above (out of fear or compulsion) while good leaders motivate you to do so out of freedom and conviction.
If people know they're valued it leads to trustful relationships.
Leaders in organisations have a responsibility to foster an environment where trust and freedom thrive, then, people will want to obey freely without social consequences. Psychological safety is allowing people to be themselves and yet be productive.
Some years ago, when I was promoted to become a manager with the responsibility to lead a team,brimming with enthusiasm, I felt I could achieve much by barking out orders but this ended up becoming ineffective. It drained energy out of my team members, results were poor and it left me almost frustrated. So,my manager encouraged me to go for some coaching sessions. The coaching sessions were great and transformational. The coach taught me the two types of obedience - constructive obedience and destructive obedience. He emphasized that destructive obedience makes you a diminisher who tends to drain life out of the people by creating an atmosphere of distrust while constructive obedience makes you a multiplier who encourages people to bring their best into what they do by promoting an environment of trust.
Trust me, I opted to become a multiplier who encourages productivity by enabling my people to bring their hearts to work and not a diminisher who encourages that type of blind obedience where people look like living corpses who are bodily present but cannot contribute meaningfully to the issues at hand.
Which is better?
See you next time .
Emmanuel
