LEADERSHIP

Great Leaders Share Purpose to Overcome Apathy

A workplace cancer that leaders can cause or cure

Photo by Bruno Figueiredo on Unsplash

Curing apathy is now an essential leadership skill — getting others to care, to give a damn about a mission.

“The world is looking for leaders.”

— Michael Horner

This should not be confused with getting others to follow rules. To behave. If leaders simply manage to get followers to sit in silence and beaver away at tasks, until the end of the day, they won't achieve much.

As a leader, I urge you to ask yourself:

1. Does your presence overcome follower-apathy at work? Or,
2. Does your presence add to apathy at work?
3. Do your followers work harder, better, or worse in your absence?
4. Could they do the same job without you?

This is woven into an eternal human problem — how motivation influences us to structure our work. The challenge for leaders is how to help employees to do meaningful work, not because they have to or to avoid boredom.

This article will explore apathy, the primary cause as to why 70 percent of the workforce today is uninspired.