1: Author Fred Kofman was leading a leadership seminar at a chemical company.
“I love molecules!” Boris (not his real name) exclaimed with humorous exasperation. “Molecules are so well behaved. You apply a certain amount of heat and a certain amount of pressure to them, and you know exactly what they are going to do.”
Everyone laughed.
“The problem,” he went on, “is that I did so well managing molecules that they promoted me to manage people.
“I don’t get people; they are not well behaved. You apply a certain amount of heat and a certain amount of pressure, and you never know what they are going to do.”
Boris was a scientist. He was smart, earning PhDs in physics, chemistry, and chemical engineering. He was learning a difficult lesson: As leaders, we can’t treat people like molecules.
“It doesn’t work,” Fred writes in his book The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership.
Because “in contrast to molecules, people have minds of their own,” he notes.
2: Many leaders have been “well-trained in the technical dimension of management,” Fred writes.
The problem? “They’ve been poorly trained in the human one. They don’t know how to deal with these beings who have minds of their own,” he observes. “Despite their MBAs and executive education courses, they don’t know how to win hearts and minds.”
What often happens?
“They fall into tunnel vision and narcissism. They rely on task-oriented, command-and-control directives, particularly in times of stress,” Fred notes. “They believe that soft skills matter less than their hard, cognitive ones, which they use as a bulwark against deeper, more introspective work.”
This reality is true not only in for-profit businesses.
“Nonprofit organizations with noble purposes, such as hospitals, schools, and charities, are also burdened with managers who focus on the trivial and petty,” he writes. “They treat people badly; they fail to listen. They play politics, dragging people into the mud, casting blame instead of listening and taking responsibility for their behavior. They collect their paychecks and hold on until retirement.
“When such people are in power, the organization wilts. Everyone takes note, from janitors to executives. Employees shrug their shoulders and say, ‘If the boss can act like a jerk, why should I give a damn?’
3: What results? Wide-scale disengagement.
“Cynicism and apathy set in like a virus,” Fred notes. “The infected organization dies off slowly, thanks to the leaders’ ignorance and selfishness.”
There is a better way, Fred believes.
More tomorrow.
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Reflection: Is workplace disengagement an issue at my organization?
Action: Discuss with my team or with a colleague.
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