The new year. A time of contemplation. A time when we often think about doing things differently. I wonder what might be worth doing differently in this new year? Well, amongst some other things, I believe that there is still an awful lot to do in the area of leadership development.

Last month Sir Brian Souter, co-founder of Stagecoach (the bus company, not Wells Fargo) warned that too many large companies are run by ‘control freaks’ and that their outlook affected long term business growth.

Sir Brian! How ungallant.

In the same newspaper article, he was also reported as saying, ‘the more emperors we have the more staid our growth will be for the longer term…entrepreneurs need to be encouraged…there needs to be a fiscal system to do that which is simpler than the one currently in place…some people are terrified to do anything in case it affects their share price’. (A link to the complete article can be found at the bottom of the newsletter).

Let’s consider one of the main points he appears to be making.

Bosses who are control freaks stifle business growth.

Have you ever had a boss like that? You would certainly recognise the signs if you had. These signs include the following:

You need to run all your ideas past them first – welcome to kindergarten.

Innovation and creativity can be permitted only on their say so, and even if others are allowed to be creative and innovative, the kudos for the idea may not ultimately be allowed to remain with the originator(s) – how motivating.

The general atmosphere around them feels tense, restrictive, overbearing – how energising.

People are generally nervous and fearful for their jobs – how relaxing.

Any element of humour has got to be of the correct type and may also only be deemed humour if the boss deems it to be – how depressing.

It’s an open secret that must not be said out loud (a bit like Volderm…oops) but you know, and you know that everyone else knows, that everyone is essentially working towards making sure that the boss’s impending bonus is paid in full so that their latest exotically located Caribbean holiday property can be purchased, along with the prerequisite monogrammed carpets for the driveway, Ultra HD 4K TVs on the floor of the swimming pool, and gold satin waistcoats for the kangaroo butlers – how inspiring, but perhaps only for the kangaroos.

Now being a control freak does not necessarily run hand in hand with having ostentatious and self-indulgent tastes. It does however often run hand in hand with being self-indulgent; self- indulgent in the sense that the control freaks can harbour a belief that the whole enterprise actually revolves around them and is simply there to fulfil their desires for power, prestige, wealth (and sometimes the kangaroos).

What sort of working environment might that type of boss create? Probably pretty grim. The fact that they focused so much on themselves and their own gain, would likely sabotage ultimately the gaining of that gain! Would anyone around them really be giving one hundred percent? One hundred percent in terms of fear, and thinking simply about survival perhaps.

And yet these often apparently smooth (to the investors) operatives pocket the money, tick another box on the CV, and move elegantly and decisively onto the next cash cow with vampiric accuracy, leaving behind them the collateral damage of dashed hopes and shredded nerves.

Imagine the following organisation. The leader laughs. The leader has a sense of humour. That leader can be self-deprecating. Others are encouraged to have fun. Bonuses, if they exist, are more evenly spread. People know at least a little about each other’s families. The leader welcomes and encourages new ideas, and the person who generates the ideas gets the kudos. There are regular celebrations, for the right reasons. The leader mentors and coaches. The leader also understands that sometimes others must lead. There is a high level of transparency. Doors are actually open.

Unrealistic? Of course not, many successful teams work that way and also some organisations. But here’s the secret…it takes effort! It generally doesn’t just happen. And this is where we need a fully developed (as a person) leader! Not a boss. And certainly not a control freak.

Now, importantly in the article, Sir Brian Souter also goes on to acknowledge that ‘the best leaders needed a mix of qualities’. That is very important, for just as the thrust of his argument was that the emperors could stifle growth and tended to be risk averse, I would suggest that whilst many entrepreneurs have the admirable ability to create businesses from almost nothing, and can display incredible resilience, motivation and creativity, they can also be blind to the needs of others in a more defined structure. Their mercurial creativity, and sometimes bad temper, often needs to be tempered, otherwise they are in danger of generating a revolving door staffing policy, and that will also affect performance and share price.

All things in balance and moderation it would seem. Perhaps this can be summarised by thinking about it in the following way.

We need more leaders who will take appropriate risks for the business, and who do not avoid risks to simply protect themselves.
We need leaders who are comfortable enough to work within a team where views and opinions may differ.
We need leaders who are not control freaks. In fact real leaders are not control freaks.
We need leaders who genuinely support others.
We need leaders with a very well developed sense of humour!

As an interesting postscript, in the same newspaper article, Anton Colella, the chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS), said that ICAS was proposing to add a moral courage principle to the body’s code of ethics. He also stated that individuals needed to take more personal responsibility to rebuild customer trust in the wake of wide ranging corporate scandals seen in recent years. Laudable stuff. And yet I would strongly suggest that until we can generate a critical mass of leaders who are smart enough and courageous enough to actually make a difference in the heat of the moment, when the pressure is on, then any such code is likely to remain much like the pirate’s code in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.

Captain Barbossa: ‘…the code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules’.
Link to the full article: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14109809.Sir_Brian_Souter_says_too_many_bosses_are__quot_control_freaks_quot_/