Leadership has a significant impact on organisational performance and sustainability in the workplace. I have used several articles to buttress that organisational performance and sustainability depend more on atmosphere, relationships, communication, power, and influence favoured or allowed by the leaders.
I have led the pack in pushing my executive clients to lead their people rather than dominating them. Domination is more common and can be subtle without the leaders knowing the adverse effects of their actions. Recently, a new CEO in my coaching session vulnerably agreed that he had been using aggressive, position-orientated, and less dignifying communication methods to lead his people and came to the point of realisation, realising that the attrition rate in his team was the direct effect of his style and not the inefficiency of the head of human resources.
“However, when leaders use dominance wholeheartedly because of a faulty leadership view, the result is more catastrophic than the intended push to improve performance.”
Are you leading or dominating your colleagues?
In Africa and Asia, leaders tend to lead in their positions. The level of power wielded by the positions is high, and abuse resulting from the positional view of leadership is second to none. Knowing that a leadership position is to lead and not dominate is essential in the paradigm shift required to anchor an effective and sustainable team.
A stable team requires some dominance. This includes ensuring the team culture, rules, and ethics are adhered to. However, when leaders use dominance wholeheartedly because of a faulty leadership view, the result is more catastrophic than the intended push to improve performance.
Akin was a general manager in one of the defunct banks in Nigeria. Here is how he changed the culture of subtle and unintended domination through the bank’s chief executive officer. At every bank executive meeting, the CEO will start by introducing the topic of discussion. Everyone, including the deputy CEO, will always begin their comments by agreeing or concurring with the side taken by the CEO in his opening remarks. It was the organisation’s custom that breeds decisions that needed to be reversed after enormous negative consequences until Akin made the clarion call.
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At a meeting, Akin stated that he disagreed with everyone who always concurred with the positions of the CEO and went on to state a contradictory position to the CEO in his opening remarks. He maintained that only better decisions would be made if people made their points independently, allowing the management team to leverage the pull of experience among its members. Everyone thought the CEO would be angry with Akin’s audacity. However, he reiterated that he could be wrong and that people should be free to express their views independently. The CEO commended Akin, marking the turning point in the organisation’s acceptance of diverse opinions and creating a psychologically safe environment.
The culture before Akin’s audacity was a subtle domination of the CEO’s opinions, undermining others’ superior thoughts. However, the CEO was open to being challenged but unintentionally enjoyed the dominance of his position.
A workplace environment is the summation of what the leaders create or allow to manifest. Domination is helpful to a reasonable extent in not allowing contrary manifestation. However, leaders who have learnt from dominant leaders tend to show excessive domination in their organisations.
A few examples of intended or unintended dominations that create disengagement in the workplace include:
Getting angry and speaking derogatorily to team members. Leaders have the right to be angry at situations and people. It is the wrong use of position to shout, abuse, and threaten the tools that are expected to be produced for you. There are alternatives to managing the consequences than personal and emotional attacks on people.
Read also: Leading with an open heart: The power and peril of vulnerability in the workplace
Do whatever you like, including not respecting meeting time and abusing decorum because you are the number one in the room. I have been in organisations where the scheduled meetings will commence once the number one person arrives. Shouldn’t the most senior person start the meeting?
People can only close for the day and go home once the CEO leaves the office. What if the CEO is waiting for another private meeting, traffic to subside, or has no happy home to go to after work?
Leaders are given unnecessary references and accolades to satisfy their egos, mainly to the detriment of the organisation’s performance and team cohesion.
Not respecting colleagues’ private and family time. Also, mixing official work with personal errands.
The above are signs that you are dominating people who are tolerating you until they find an alternative to working with you. In a mature organisation, it takes a bold employee to challenge or escalate dominant behaviours. I have been in situations where the organisational ethics in me take dominance, and I risk my career by challenging abusive behaviours.
It is worse off in owner-managed organisations where the founders or owners have executive powers and tendencies to exhibit the above dominance traits. If you search further, the owner-managed entities with high attrition rates, low engagement ratio, slow growth, and sustainable performance are due to the negative dominance of the owners. In my article titled’ Between owner-managed or owner-led organisations, I advocated that the owners of growing organisations should not manage but lead.
Dominating people is a dark spot leaders need to be aware of and work to minimise, except when necessary. People are created to dominate, not to be dominated. They are better when led to contribute to the organisations and society. The organisations that lead above dominance retain employees and repeat their performance sustainably.
Babs Olugbemi FCCA, the Chief Vision Officer at Mentoras Leadership Limited and Founder of Positive Growth Africa. He can be reached at [email protected] or 07064176953 or on Twitter @Successbabs.
