If you are indeed a leader, you must be able to work with different people to achieve the set objectives. One crucial factor distinguishing leaders who operate from the position and those who operate in the position is that the former respect and uphold the dignity of their followers. A leader who operates from their position uses the position to support others to develop, grow and be valuable assets to their teams. They do not speak, act and behave in positions. There is a vast difference between leading and dominating. You do not need to dominate people to lead them.
Steve McClaren, 63, is currently the assistant coach to Erik ten Hag, 54, at the Manchester United Football Club. Before his current position, Steve had been the head coach of ten football teams in Europe, including the manager of the English national team from 2006 to 2007. He started his coaching career in 1995 with Derby County before his appointment as Alex Ferguson’s assistant coach at Manchester United in 1999.
Read also: Positional asphyxia affecting leaders ability to sustain success
Steve’s current boss, Erick Ten Hag, was a player at Utrecht in 1995 when his assistant manager started his career as a coach, yet the role has been reversed, with the master now the servant.
Given the industry’s differences in experience, age and status, how could they work together?
The answer is plausible. People who are not suffering from positional asphyxia, as I have defined it in the part of this article, focus on achieving group objectives above their positions. In leadership, the higher you go, the fewer your rights and options. The less you can go away with abusing people, speaking in the position and being entitled, the more you will be a leader without authentic followers. Eric and Steve can work together because Eric would not relate with Steve in the position but from the position, using his office to tap as much as possible from Steve’s experience and wherewithal.
In Africa, we have many experienced people who are agile and have the energy to support new leaders in building sustainable organisations. However, there is a need for more experienced people because young and new entrepreneurs who are growing their organisations assume they know it all and will always speak rudely and brashly to those below their ranks. That is a positional delusion. Being the CEO or the founder does not confer authority. Instead, it calls for humility to galvanise the efforts of others to work with you and support your dream of building businesses that will outlive you.
There are two sides of the coin.
Some founders never want to employ older and experienced people because they lack the humility to manage them. They want people they feel they know more than and can tell what to do at will. These leaders are denying themselves the experience of people who can keep their organisations from trouble in areas where they have little knowledge and exposure.
On the other hand, some experienced people would rather stay aloof with their experience than work with a young founder or CEO because they cannot tolerate being spoken to.
I have a concept I termed the leadership midwife theory to resolve this deadlock in the two scenarios. I coined this after the Midwifery leadership, which is midwives’ ability to guide, inspire and influence their colleagues, including other midwives and the wider multidisciplinary team (Bannon et al., 2017; Adcock et al., 2022).
Midwives are leaders who play a leadership role in hospitals. They ensure the safe delivery of babies by coordinating the activities of the other midwives, nurses, assistant nurses, and other members of the multidisciplinary team.
As a leader, consider yourself the most senior midwife in the labour room. All your efforts and communication will be devoid of ego, arrogance, and positional tone to ensure nothing goes wrong with the mother and child. In the same vein, the mother and child are the objectives your business entity is set to achieve. If the objective is to grow, develop, and sustain the customer, revenue, and presence in the marketplace, you need to speak and relate with your colleagues in a way that keeps their personal dignity intact.
In the above, I have identified communication as a huge positional asphyxia affecting leaders’ ability to sustain success. What is the solution to this problem? If you don’t correct this, people will always find their way out of your organisation at the slightest opportunity.
“There is a vast difference between leading and dominating. You do not need to dominate people to lead them.”
Before I share the simple way out, let me remind my readers that speaking derogatorily to others in leadership positions is often copied from what new leaders see in their previous leaders. That is why leadership is both the most desirous and dangerous legacy to leave to people. People do what successful leaders do without creating time to reflect on the tactics and the atmosphere.
Here is the catch to avoid, improve and correct problems created by speaking in the positions, a form of position asphyxia I have noticed in leaders. Speak and relate with your team positively and purposefully, even if you are correcting them. In one of my coaching sessions for senior executives, I told a few of them that there is a difference between intention and reality. You might think you are humble, but you are not humble. You might think you are respectful, but your approach shows arrogance.
An example would be correcting a subordinate, becoming extremely angry, and shouting at the person. While you have the right to be angry at situations, it is a lack of emotional skills to be angry using your positions and words. What if the target is also fearless and gets angry at you? They will lose their job, while the leader will lose credibility for not managing the situation cleverly.
To correct the communication asphyxia affecting leaders, you must focus on the issue, not the person. The opportunity to correct people is not an avenue to tell the fairy tale of your super-start exploits in the past. That is comparison, which in most cases is demotivating to others. It is like telling your working tools that you are better than them and can do without them.
Conclusively, communicate in ways that keep people’s dignity intact by not adding your ego and position when relating with your team. Rather, be the midwife who guides, inspires, and influences your team members to produce more golden eggs for your organisation.
Babs Olugbemi FCCA, the Chief Vision Officer at Mentoras Leadership Limited and Founder of Positive Growth Africa. He can be reached on [email protected] or 07064176953 or on Twitter @Successbabs.
