Of all the many problems facing today’s business community none is more critical than the quality of the workplace. In the absence of a friendly work setting, employee loyalties quickly dissolve. According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, employees typically remain in their position for only about two years. Surveys intended to explain this remarkable mobility point to the number one reason for exit: A toxic work environment.
As discussed in the recently published Ten Golden Rules of Leadership, toxic work settings do not occur spontaneously. Almost without exception they can be traced to managerial deficiency and more often not, to the abusive misapplication of power on the part of the manager. Nothing will more rapidly disenchant and alienate workers than a manager who delights in resorting to the stick as opposed to the carrot.
Office Shows the Person
The assumption of authority brings out the leader’s inner world. It reveals whether the leader has undergone a process of honest self-discovery that allows for the productive application of power.
This centuries old rule of leadership can be traced back to the ruler of Mytilene, a man named Pittacus (circa 600 BC). After governing his city for a decade, Pittacus voluntarily relinquished his power and retired. The ancient author of Diogenes Laertius recorded a number of famous saying traditionally attributed to Pittacus, the most famous being “office shows the man.” Above all else, this maxim addresses the critical issue of power and its effects. Implicitly, it includes two premises. First, that the investment of power—in other words, granting a leader meaningful authority—is the trigger that will rapidly reveal that person’s inner qualities. Second, that power not only has a potential to disclose who a person really is; it also has the capacity to corrupt.
Are there any recent examples coming to mind?
Read The First Rule Of Leadership here.
