Nigeria’s business lexicon is replete with unique words and expressions. These expressions are oftentimes, direct but very “colourful” translations from the various native dialects. The interesting thing is that they signpost intrinsic connotations of unique characteristics and actions.
For instance, “The Big Boss” or “The Boss” is an allegorical representation of the leader who still carries on as a manager. His demeanour is hegemonic, overbearing and stifling. He is the “imperial overseer” that “chokes” employees with commands and instructions.
As said earlier, he is the manager in the leader. “I am the boss. I tell you what to do and why it should be done”. “I even tell you when it must be done”. He cares for himself alone. He does not help others to find a way nor chart a course for them to follow. He is always blaming subordinates for failures. He manages from a position of ego and has little respect for others. He, most times, pulls his colleagues down and he is never transparent nor honest with information. He is always on the defensive. His colleagues, are his adversaries and whoever challenges his authority is in deep trouble.
The manager-leader micromanages employees. He lacks empathy and perspective. When you are enamoured with position and status, you lose focus on your “real” job. A leader ought to be responsible for the people who are responsible for the job. According to Albert Einstein: “To form a flock of sheep, one must, above all, be a sheep”.
Expected Value Model in empirical economics says that in order to maximize value, there must be an interplay of differentiating variables not a variable.
Before we go into the tremendous advantages of achieving desired growth and prosperity through “The Team” and not “The Big Boss or The Boss”, let us quickly note some other negative characteristics of the ego-driven and status-conscious chief executive. They exhibit telltale signs such as pride, lack of humility and fear.
“He is Mr. “know-all” and therefore, not interested in learning from his subordinates. He does not treat others with dignity and respect. We all know that in this dynamic and ever changing world, the leader must be genuinely. interested in his colleagues in order to learn and grow perspectives.
An appetite for learning new things should humble leaders. You cannot have it all figured out and therefore, you must always adapt, grow and overcome challenges on the way of profitability and growth through leadership. You must always give clarity to team members so that they know the lane to run on. Team members must know what is expected of them and what they need to do to surpass expectations. The team must be clear on the organisation’s KRAs (key result areas). The absence of clarity leads to confusion. It is surely impossible for an organisation to achieve amazing results in the midst of confusion.
Fear creeps in gradually in the career of the lone-ranger boss. When the boss is afraid, morale is dampened and corporate culture is seriously impaired or ineffective. You cannot even push through value-adding decisions and of course, team vulnerability becomes the order of the day. The antidotes to fear are, healthy level intensity in leading team members, eagerness and confidence. Fear is a contagious feeling and it breeds gossip, sycophancy and lack of optimism.
The word TEAM has been turned into an acronym and the full meaning is: Together Everyone Achieves More. The team is a group of people with various complementary skills working together towards a common result-oriented vision. Members operate with high degree of trust, accountability and value-delivering as well as transparent engagement. The team generates performance and results greater than the sum of individual members. Members help each other to achieve assigned roles and expectations. There exists healthy competition and focus on corporate goals achievement.
Individual team members through beneficial engagement, create an environment that allows members to jump over hurdles and limitations. This enables unbelievable accountability within the context of lofty goals.
The critical driver of “teaming” is transparent collaboration with honest and regular communication, coordination, mutual respect and support, cohesion and synchronization of great efforts as well as balance of contributions.
Bernard Shaw said that “God made this world, but we should make it better.” Everything we need to orchestrate and achieve desired results and goals centres on how the “steward leader” not “The Big Boss” leads his people. These can be graphic overlays, real time visualisation, close examination of details, data analytics, modern storytelling, expectations for result-oriented business models or enhancement of how things are done.
We need competent, strategic, thoughtful teams that are not resistant to new and great ideas. They must stay connected to new ideas always. Teams drive smart goals and make the goals happen.
Our guiding principle should be: “Let us do it more powerfully. But I alone cannot do it. Less me and more of we”.
Let me conclude with the Psychological Safety Model. The strategy for building and nurturing high performance teams is the “Psychological Safety Model” and it has only two dimensions: namely; mutual trust and respect. Leaders must promote trust by being humble. They must promote humility in their respective organisations and also encourage team members to accept but learn from failures. Failure is an opportunity to do it more intelligently; it creates a new path for experimentation and new knowledge. Respect must be modelled by “active” listening and treating conflict as opportunities for collaboration.
Allow team members to express themselves and also display their skills and talents. They must also be honest in conversations. The leader must be the fulcrum of this cycle of trust.
Let me leave you with this parting shot: “Only weak people revenge. Strong people forgive always”.
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