Week 9, 2023—Issue #244
True Leadership: From Command and Control to Motivation
Leaders — true leaders — don’t command or control. They motivate.
In the book Time’s Up, authors Dunn and Baker recount the following exercise:
1. Command
[Imagine that three] groups of 10 individuals are in a park at lunchtime with a rainstorm threatening. In the first group, someone says:
“Get up and follow me.” When he starts walking and only a few others join in, he yells to those still seated: “Up, I said, and NOW!”
2. Control
In the second group, someone says: “We’re going to have to move. Here’s the plan. Each of us stands up and marches in the direction of the apple tree. Please stay at least two feet away from other group members and do not run. Do not leave any personal belongings on the ground here, and be sure to stop at the base of the tree. When we are all there…”
3. Motivation
In the third group, someone tells the others:
“It’s going to rain in a few minutes. Why don’t we go over there and sit under that huge apple tree. We’ll stay dry and we can have fresh apples for lunch.
Which one would you choose, and why?
We wonder…
Wonder, indeed.
Will you choose Command that relies on— nay, expects! — blind obedience? Will you choose Control, which assumes people must be micro-managed to perform? Or will you choose Motivation in which people are engaged and involved in decision-making?
Will you choose Command, Control, or Leadership?
That’s not a typo.
As Lao Tzu wrote: “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
Leadership — true leadership — is best defined as the art of motivating a group of people to achieve a common goal.
Leaders don’t command and control. That’s what bosses do.
Leaders motivate, and that’s per definition.
That’s all for this week.
Until next time: Make it matter.
How can we build better organizations? That’s the question I’ve been trying to answer for the past 10 years. Each week, I share some of what I’ve learned in a weekly newsletter called WorkMatters. Subscription is free. Back-issues are published to Medium after three months. This article was originally published on Friday, February 24, 2023.
