As in life as well as business, when two
people treat each other with respect and trust a stronger relationship will
emerge. This theory also applies to
leaders and followers; the better an employee is treated the more willing they
will be to go above and beyond. This may
not be true of all employees but certainly for the ones who are motivated to
move up the success ladder.
The seems to always be two types of
employees in every company, those who are looking to move up and those who are
content on staying where they are. Rowe and Guerrero (2012)
used the terms “in-group” and “out-group” respectively to describe these two
groups.
In-group members have a mutual respect, trust, and reciprocal influence
that are driven by the desire to move ahead and gain respect and
responsibility. One the other hand,
out-group member tend to only do what is necessary to keep their job and get
by. Rowe and Guerrero (2012)
described the out-group members as being physically at the job but have
mentally defected. While I believe these
types of employees exist, I have seen them first hand, I also believe that they
are followers who have no desire to move up as they are assets exactly where
they are and may not possess the ability to desire to lead. The ones that only offer a minimal amount of
work to keep their jobs can have a negative impact on the department and the company;
however, those employees who possess great skill at the job they are assigned
to but show no desire to lead can be a positive influence. Not all people can lead from in front of a
group; some can lead by example within the group and this is where certain member
of the out-group can be helpful and deserve the same amount of energy from the
leader.
When a person invests time in fostering a high-quality
relationship with another it shows that they believe in that person and that
person tends to step up and meet those beliefs.
Obolensky (2014) described the five levels of followership, these are
the steps a leader can take to bring a follower up the ladder and increase
their ability to not only act on their own but also lead others. It can be difficult at times for a leader to
let go of control and empower employees, however, when it happens the leader is
often surprised by the quality or work from the followers.
I would, and have, worked harder for those leaders who
invested time and energy into me and my advancement. These leaders are the same ones who are
interested in fostering a two-way street form of communication, trust, and
respect. There is a difference between
these leaders and those that “assign” tasks to employees simply because they do
not want to do themselves. Often times
it can be difficult to see the difference, especially in a clever and
charismatic leader. I have made that
mistake once and learned a lot from the experience. My leader would often assign me the jobs he
was supposed to do, not because he necessarily thought I would do a good job or
could handle the responsibility but because he did not want to deal with the
stress. Fortunately for me, our manager
realized what was going on and reprimanded him and promoted me, as it turned
out I was during a great job and she noticed.
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex adaptive leadership:
Embracing paradox and
uncertainty (2nd ed.). Farnham, England:
Gower Publishing Limited.
Rowe,
W. G., & Guerrero, L. (2012). Cases in Leadership (3rd ed.). SAGE
Publications,
Inc.
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