LEADERSHIP: EMPLOYEES MIRROR SENIOR MANAGEMENT’S BEHAVIOR

Before the age of five, we learn most of what we need to survive.  We learned the essentials not by listening, but by watching what the adults in our life (the people who had  power over us) were doing.  Prior to developing our verbal skills, we didn’t understand what Mom and Dad were saying, but we discerned much from their tone, body language, and actions.  We knew instinctively that  actions  speak louder than words. 

Most employees are predisposed to respond to attitudinal and behaviour cues from people in power—they usually  imitate senior management.  Some behave in ways that are 180 degrees against what executives are doing—but their behaviour is still directly linked to management signals.  For example, when executives isolate themselves in the corner office, focusing exclusively on reports, managers and supervisors will be inclined to spend an inordinate amount of time number crunching  and engaging in CYA activity.

After 35 years of management consulting, I can attest to the fact that executives get a mirror image of senior management behavior from their employees.  You’ve probably been exposed to the dysfunctional executive who gives an annual inspirational talk on moving forward, then spends the remaining 364 days checking expense reports, counting paperclips, and acting in a manner that signals everything but a genuine desire to change.  Employees are conditioned from childhood to ignore speeches and training if executive signals (day to day bevavior) are not in alignhment. 

Challenge and Appropriate Leader Response

Analysts may relegate your operation to the slag heap, but if you have the courage to remain visible to people—painting mental pictures of winning  by living the organizations cultural-values.  If you send clear, uncomplicated signals in both word and deed, people will catch your drift and start generating corporate energy.  The odds of making the improbable happen will greatly increase.  A leader’s willingness to encourage challenge and respond appropriately when it occurs, has a multiplier effect.  Each appropriate leader response (appropriate, meaning getting the job done but in a way that further reinforces the organization’s vision and cultural-values) made under fire, generates sustainable corporate energy.  Military leaders know that soldiers respond best to leaders who have been tested under fire.  Without clarifying cultural-values, there is no way for employees to determine what behaviors are appropriate.  That’s why ethical disasters like Enron and Arthur Anderson happen.

 Ineffective managers send signals that are confusing and conflicted with signals sent before.   Cultural-values may have been clarified but because they are used as words, not lived as actions, they will  have a negative impact on performance. Corporate training initiatives are at best a waste of time and at worst destructive when  senior management is not visibly suppportive.  In terms of leadership, a do as I say, not as I do attitude doesn’t cut it.  When senior management remains unskilled in the art of signal sending and responding appropriately to challenge, they will  still  lead—but they’ll lead towards poor productivity and  increased resistance to change.

Sponsored by the HOW TO SURVIVE AND PROSPER IN THE “SHIFT-AGE” WORKSHOP