Why We Resist Positional Power – One Third of Employees Have Managers Who Can’t Be Their Leader
By Michelle Malay Carter on January 15, 2008
Positional power, like hierarchies, is getting a bad rap from the kumbaya crowd these days.? No one appreciates abuse of power, and I am not denying its prevelance.?? However, eliminating positions within organizations is ludicrous.? Positional power is not inherently a bad thing.?
What is bad is the confounded systems and unvalidated criteria that organizations use to place people into leadership positions in the first place, and by the way, all managerial positions have leadership accountabilities.
If we understood the roots of what makes for satiating leadership, designed a selection process around these elements, and then reliably screened for these elements, employees would have no issue with positional power because the system would ensure that leadership capability?was embedded within the positional capabilities.
Why the Revolt and Distain for Positional Power??
About one in three employees within organizations is being asked to commit and submit to the leadership of a manager who does not have the cognitive capacity to be the employee’s thought leader.? A manager may have more experience or education, but raw cognitive capability is a separate factor.?
Therein should lie the distain -?for the deficient talent management systems that deny one-third of our workforce proper leadership.
I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.
Have you ever worked for a boss with more experience than you but who “thought small” and didn’t give you the?big picture answers you needed?
Filed Under Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Strategy, Talent Management
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