Leadership Excellence: A Case Study

There is a common misconception in the workplace that power is one and the same thing as control. The mistake is illustrated when one asks a leadership team what power strategies they might use in order to get the results they require from their subordinates. Typically there is a wide range of answers given to this question but all of these strategies will typically fall into two categories of either coercion or persuasion. Typically then there is one of two ways in which leaders in an organization try to get something out of their subordinates, they can either coerce the subordinates into following instructions or they can persuade them.

What many leaders fail to recognise however is that what they take to be an exercise of power through persuasion or coercion is in fact very often an exercise of control. The reason why the leader’s exercise of power strategies fails to be power and is rather control is because they fail to unlock the willingness of the subordinates. Power only exists if the subordinate does what you tell them to do willingly. Schuitema Associates defines power as the ability to command authentic loyalty and respect. I give you power over me when I willingly give you permission to tell me what to do. If I do not willingly grant them permission to tell me what to do then they do not have power over me, they can only possibly have control over me based on the ability to coerce or persuade me.

This is a misunderstanding that leaders throughout the world are guilty of, believing that you can have power over unwilling subordinates. If the subordinates are unwilling you do not have power you have control. If you only have control then your capacity to engage the productivity of your subordinates is substantially compromised. Perhaps the greatest leadership challenge then is engaging the willingness to contribute of one’s subordinates and it is in this that the leader becomes powerful. This is to be achieved by being in the relationship with the subordinate to care for and grow the subordinate. For more on this see the Care and Growth model.

Pam Pretorius, human excellence consultant at Schuitema, recently relayed an interesting story of a mine overseer at Lonmin that illustrates the value of engaging the willingness of subordinates. The story arose out of meetings Pam has been conducting with mine overseers at Lonmin to hear how they have been doing with their shift supervisors.  One of these was a meeting with a mine overseer, Fanie, to follow up on any outstanding points from a leadership profile done for him last year.

In the meeting Fanie shared a practical example of how he is devolving authority and developing his shift supervisors, making them own their performance and engaging their willingness to contribute.  He showed me the evidence on his noticeboard of the Safety Pledges and Action Plans for each and every team and in some cases, each gang of workers.  He tasked his shift supervisors to discuss safety in each area and ask the workers to come up with their own suggestions to improve safety.  He also asked them to develop a statement to show their commitment to the action plan to work more safely in their areas.  Each team had to produce their own Pledge and one team also had a slogan to support their Pledge.

The enthusiasm and commitment from the people was overwhelming and to see the screeds of paper with really motivating statements pinned to Fanie’s noticeboard is testament to the old adage that people support what they are part of.  One of the things that he said really rang true and that was he could have instructed the shift supervisors to improve their safety and make sure their people did too and there would have been some changes, for sure but this way, he has elicited contribution AND commitment to these safety improvements from each and every member of the teams he oversees.

He also spent time underground checking that these were all genuine and that the workers understood what they had committed to – his spot questions showed exactly that.  Each person he questioned could explain every action plan on their list and vouched for the commitment of the team.

As the old Pakistani saying goes: “If the leaves of the tree are yellow, don’t paint them green, water the roots”, if there is something in the results that is concerning you, look at what you are putting in and the results will reflect this over time.  This is true of Fanie’s safety record – on his shaft with ten mine overseers they had 19 lost time injuries in October and not one was in this section.  In fact, he has not had a single lost time injury since August and with this initiative, he is sure to sustain this great record.

Fanie had put the recommendations into action and was consequently awarded mine overseer of the year based on the outstanding results he achieved.  When I asked him what he attributed his success to, he did not hesitate by saying that this he was recognised because of his team and the outstanding work they did in the preceding year.  He is very quick to acknowledge what his shift supervisors have done and will not take the credit for himself.  The humility of this man is amazing.

This story illustrates that genuine power consists in the ability to unlock the willingness to contribute in one’s subordinates and this will unlock the productivity of the subordinates.