The fragility of power

Management fads come and go. Yesterday, the buzzword in business was empowerment and the twin brother of this is enablement. While many companies have taken on the necessity of employee empowerment and employee enablement, and HR have implemented, and help execute the programs brilliantly; an unforeseen factor that has become a game-changer is the proliferation of technology that has both enabled and empowered people in the workplace.

This has resulted to an unprecedented distribution of power all across the levels of the business organization and even outside it. And while employee empowerment and enablement has been provided and practiced in the past, could this not have given way to employee entitlement especially among the younger millennials who are not acquainted with process of success, but insist and demand instant success similar to what their technology can bring them?

Could this also be the reason why you find young people in the workplace after a mere two years of employment and not yet fully grasping the nature and operation of the business demanding a promotion and an increase in salary as they feel so… there is that word again… entitled to it?

With a growing economy and a fast-expanding organization, young people are pushed into positions of leadership and voila – you have problems and complexities that plague businesses and rob it of its valuable resources.

Here is the key. Disengaged employees are the ones who contribute to such problems and they have power today that many of the early employees do not have. The workforce today finds it easy to quit their jobs, and find another one. Technology easily helps them find new jobs and in a growing economy, the attraction. Recruitment and retention of talents raises the bar of competition higher and many are pronged to settle for the least of the best; especially the ones that cannot afford to offer high and attractive packages.

While this is taking place, another dynamic force permeates the workplace. This involves leadership and power. Leaders still wield authority and power, but many realize that power has become fragile. Hierarchical power has given way to network power. While in the past, it was wealth and resources that define power; today, power has to include networks and attention attraction as famous author and professor Adam Grant would say:

• Big companies may be disrupted by a college kid with a cellphone with imagination and vision hungry to scale their business and make money (and retire at age 30). Notice the craving for instant gratification.

• One wrong word, and one offensive action can cause a hurting employee to resign and try freelance work at best, or post an interesting video that sends a negative message that goes viral in seconds, stressing out big time corporate communications officers and sending them into a frenzy.

• One kid with a smart phone can reach a wider audience than a corporate communications officer backed up by the most powerful PR agencies in the country.

The old model management is still command and control, while what is needed today is leadership that collaborates and learn. Traditional companies are still very hierarchical, the result of which leads to management by command and control. This creates silos. And silos produce disengaged employees. Disengaged employees waste company resources and they drive good and gifted talents away or worst; they foster a culture of mediocrity and everyone is shaped by the system. Believe me, if you find that recruiting talents today is challenging, just wait till you see the difficulty that will face you in the next few years.

This is why effective leadership is required. Leadership that does not command and control, but positively and inspiringly engages and influence their people. The type of effective leadership that makes talents say:

• “I don’t want to leave this company because my leader brings out the best in me.”

• “This company is great because it has a great culture.”

• “I am appreciated and fairly rewarded for the work I put in it.”

• “This company provides me with the training for my own personal growth and development, and my boss makes sure that I get it.”

• “This company does what is right and this is evidenced by the integrity my leader shows in his daily life and work.”

It is so hard to label these ideal qualities and talents we are looking for today, so we just conveniently label them as “soft skills.” But trust me, these skills are nowhere soft. Soft skills training today is in an even greater demand today. My daughter Rachel, whom I now call “Boss,” explains: “Dad, the challenge in soft skills training is that the young workforce today are so intelligent, informed, and articulate such that they do not easily believe “gurus” who do not exhibit what they preach. Another challenge for companies is that internal officers who teach and train soft skills are perceived as delivering sermons and reprimands to the consternation of the leaders. This is not new. Even Jesus Christ said that “a prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown…” (paraphrased)

Empowering, enabling, and engaging our people should not neglect the important part of educating them with values to make them use their powers correctly not only for the company that employs them, but also for themselves.

Yes, power today is fragile and so is everything else. Yet when it comes to the fast-changing times, values should never change, and these young people need to know and live.

(Attend the two exciting and inspiring days of leadership training with Francis Kong in his highly acclaimed Level Up Leadership seminar-workshop on April 2 and 3 at the Makati Diamond Residences across Greenbelt 1. For registration or inquiries contact April at +63928-559-1798 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)