March 26, 2020 | by David March.
All of us, in any work we have done in our careers, have had a boss. While we all do our personal best to succeed despite the type of boss we may have, there is added value in distinguishing the types of bosses and their qualities. There are two types of bosses: old-school and new-school bosses. Bringing this information to the surface will help bosses recognize their strengths and weaknesses and allow employees to understand their supervisors better. This, the first part of a two-article series, will offer my insights on how bosses can interact with their employees better and help employees feel a sense of shared struggle with the boss they have. This information comes after conducting much research and collecting public opinion.
Old-School Bosses
“It’s either my way, or the highway!” and, “We are paying them – why aren’t they working as hard or being as effective as me?” These are just a couple of common phrases that come up when describing things an old-school boss might say. Public opinion holds that these relics want their Millennial or Gen Z workers to work harder, often by working overtime.
It’s easy to say that it’s just a generational gap, and that might be true in some cases, but that doesn’t cover the issue fully. This is more than a generational issue; it’s a philosophical divide in management styles. Such a divide will continue if not recognized and changed.
Old-school bosses are the prime example of autocratic leadership; going back to the Greek roots, the literal translation of autocratic is “self-rule”. According to an article published by St. Thomas University, “The autocratic leadership process generally entails one person making all strategic decisions for subordinates.” Old-school bosses follow this pattern and generally will mandate all standard operating procedures in their department or company. As a result, they tend to exhibit a lack of trust in others’ abilities or advice.
Being an old-school boss isn’t completely negative, either! They can be the hardest working in any place of business and are very capable, often wearing multiple hats. Due to their knowledge of how the disparate parts of an operation work together effective bosses can communicate the “why” behind the rules and procedures, be consistent and fair in their treatment of employees, and not make mistakes.
However, some of these same traits can also lead to ineffective management. Old-school bosses use themselves as the standard for their employees’ productivity, but their mode of leadership does not lend itself to training employees to meet their expected standard. Rather than developing their staff, employees are overworked and under appreciated. The old-school boss may be afraid they will train themselves out of a job. In fear of becoming irrelevant they fight tooth and nail to stick around by taking on more work.
In some cases, employees can be battling the symptoms of corporate greed of their bosses. This is where the compensation structure is intensely focused on hitting short-term milestones. This structure incentivizes bosses to keep productive individuals stagnant in their role – hitting the numbers – rather than rewarding their excellence with a promotion or growth within the company.
Pros of Old-School Leadership
Good when decisions need to be made quickly
• Prevents stagnation due to poor or lack of organization
• Higher ability to meet deadlines
• Most effective during stressful times when people look to leadership for the answers
• Ideal for the launch phase of a program, when success depends on timing, or when reaching a singular goal is the top priority
Cons of Old-School Leadership
- Invites abuse by those drawn to power
- Creativity can suffer if rules are too rigid
- Can discourage good communication between different levels of the organizational hierarchy
- Does not work well in industries that encourage decision-making at all levels or that have a flat organizational structure
- Modern employees, especially millennials, tend not to thrive under autocratic leadership
Lack of training and development of employees is one of the biggest blind spots in autocratic leadership. Likewise, it is also the reason why many employees become disengaged in this type of environment.
Employee Engagement
Peter Baeklund famously described a hypothetical conversation between the CEO and CFO of a company:
Autocratic leaders are great at the initial training of a workforce, getting them set-up in the system, telling them the rules and the very basics on how to do the job. in fact, they are most effective when managing lots of people with little training or experience. In the old style of leadership, the supervisor, unfortunately, views employees as cogs in a machine and does not seek to coach or mentor their staff beyond the basics of their job. With that said, there is then a lack of motivation from employees and therefore they become disengaged.
Employees who excel are encouraged to stay in that position because the old-school boss sees it as the best utilization of their skills. The best employees realize they are languishing in a dead-end job and will move on to where their skills are appreciated and rewarded. The employees left behind are the ones who did not perform successfully enough to reach the ceiling of their job.
Without continuous development, a fixed-mindset culture emerges. A fixed-mindset embodies the phrase, if it’s not broken don’t fix it. There is no need to innovate. Keep things the same. Those who are not encouraged to improve or take initiative, stop focusing on those things. Creativity and innovation are further stifled by the strict rules and structure of autocratic leadership, thereby hindering the business’ growth.
In this autocratic environment, it is common for the company to be more focused on short-term milestones than on long-term goals. Even if the old-school boss were sharing this vision with employees, they will not feel appreciated or supported. Employees will not be agreeable to the long-term vision nor will be able to see how they fit into these long-term goals. As such, the entire team or company will be focused only on short-term goals and deadlines rather on the long-term vision therefore leading staff to burn-out and bosses to be in a continual hiring phase. Lowering productivity.
Today’s workforce is better educated than ever before and feels stifled by traditional, autocratic leadership. They crave leadership that will coach, engage, and mentor them!
Why is coaching and mentorship important?
Imagine that you have been an employee at your company for twenty years and you were the top salesperson for many years in a row. After a well-deserved promotion, you have become a self-driven, autocratic leader in charge of a team of people. You maintain your practices of selling and continue to make an exorbitant amount of sales, however this still does not make your team successful. Why is that?
Although you have been promoted to management your skills as a salesperson are not the same as what you need to be a leader. Being a leader requires a completely different set of skills than you needed as a top-performing employee. These skills can include coaching, teaching, mentoring, and engaging your staff. Skills can also include finding a way to develop the business. Without additional training and development to help you rise to the level of your new position, you will not be successful.
This leads us to the crux of the matter for many old-school bosses –the importance of increasing employee engagement and empowering their workforce. David Marquet’s story of how he became one of the highest performing leaders in the Navy highlights just that. In fact, David does such a good job that Simon Sinek also refers to it in one of his talks.
David Marquet’s narrative begins with his background as captain of a Navy submarine. Going into his endeavor, he had the belief that in order to be the best leader, he needed to give the best orders. He was told he would be commanding a ship called the USS Olympia. To give the best orders, he studied the vessel for a full year – inside and out. At the last minute, his assignment changed, and was given a different ship to command.
Captaining the USS Santa Fe was a challenge
As the lowest ranked crew in the entire fleet, David knew his work was cut out for him, but he was ready for it. His thought was that the caliber of his orders would determine the success of his crew.
Everything went well for a couple of days, until he gave an order that didn’t apply to the ship, as it was a slightly updated version of the submarine he had originally studied. His second-in-command, despite having more experience aboard the boat, repeated the order, but the crewman didn’t comply.
Upon questioning the Seaman who didn’t take the order, David found that his instruction to move “ahead, two thirds” wasn’t an applicable setting to the ship and his crew literally could not do what he had commanded. When he asked his second-in-command why he repeated the order, despite knowing it wasn’t possible, he answered, “Because you told me to.”
That day, David realized that he didn’t understand the ship, and his crew was going to comply with his orders without question because of his role. Eventually, he was going to make a mistake, his crew wouldn’t be able to make the right call, and it would be a life-or-death situation. He had to empower his crew if they were going to be successful, because while he had the authority, they had all the information. By pushing the authority down to his crew and empowering them, they became the highest rated submarine crew in naval history.
In today’s day and age, employee engagement is the key to a successful business. Without buy-in from your employees on your long-term goals, you won’t be able to connect with them. Development, appreciation, and empowerment of the individual are essential, no matter what style of leadership you subscribe to.
To take the next step, schedule a call with me at https://calendly.com/coachdavemarch
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