Early in my career I read an article published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) that made an impression on me. I took notes from the article and referred back to it at various points in my career. The article was titled The Three Responses to Leadership.
Imagine you have just been hired into a new job. You will be leading a department or business where you will be meeting your team for the first time. They don’t know you or how you operate. You call a meeting and bring your team together for the first time. You’re in front of the room and after some commentary on who you are, where you are from, etc. it’s now time to get specific on what you are looking for from the team and how you intend to lead.
Then, you share the summary of the HBR article. You tell the team there are three responses to leadership. It goes like this:
Response #1: Rebellion. This is when those being led reject all the values and norms of the leader.
Response #2: Creative Individualism. This is when those being led accept the pivotal values and norms, but are free to reject all others.
Response #3: Conformity. This is when those being led accept all values and norms. Period.
You point out that you can’t have rebellion and you don’t want conformity. Rebellion is too radical and costly to an organization. The rebellious turn their efforts toward defeating the organization’s goals. That just won’t work. As for conformity, those being led curb their creativity thereby moving the organization toward a sterile form of bureaucracy. Certainly, you don’t want a team of yes men and yes women.
That leaves creative individualism. This response to your leadership ‘gets things done’. It’s agreed there can be no challenge to the organization’s core values, but after that, anything goes. The team is free to speak-up, to challenge. The team is free to suggest new ideas, to oppose the status quo and to propose different ways of doing things. As the leader, you in return may agree or disagree with those new ideas, but for sure you will listen to them and give these ideas a fair hearing. That’s how effective leadership rolls.
Sounds basic, right?
I can assure you not all leaders understand, value or embrace the mindset of creative individualism. Chances are you’ve worked in a place where ‘the inmates were running the prison’ (response #1 rebellion). In these instances, the leader just isn’t cut out for the job. More common in my view is the leader that insists on loyalty at all costs (response #3 conformity). The ‘I’m the boss’ guy. The ‘I’m in charge guy’. This is the leader that can’t handle being challenged or pushed by his/her team. This leadership style produces high employee turnover, low satisfaction and engagement, and an environment where innovation is stifled. Unfortunately, this is all too common in my experience.
So, #2 it is. Creative individualism. That’s how we want our teams to behave and act. As the leader, you set the tone by requesting, encouraging and insisting on this response to your leadership. Thereafter, good things will flow.
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