Episode #275: What Type Of Leaders Don't Followers Want In Japan

During a leadership training session here we looked at what the group thought were the traits of ineffective leaders. Followers are pristine boss watchers. They scrutinise the boss every day for a safety readout. Is today the time to raise my idea about that project. Is the coast clear to ask for money for this project. How is the mood for granting my leave approval? Every nuance of facial, body and voice expression are minutely dissected to see if this is a fight or flight moment of interaction with the boss. Miraculously bosses forget this and don’t recall how skilled they were at studying their own bosses, when they were on their way up through the ranks. There were things we didn’t like about our bosses, but have we cleverly overlooked them in our own regard?

Staff don’t like bosses who give very little or no feedback. Often the traits that self select bosses work against this. They can be ippiki okamior lone wolf types. They are independent, self contained, self reliant, require no recognition and are self acualising. This is me by the way! When this is your world, you don’t require praise from anyone about doing your job professionally, so you don’t entertain the idea that anyone else would require it either. Well staff are not like you. This is the first breakthrough. We know it, but we forget it.

They want to know that what they are doing is important, that it is valued and that they are valued. When we did a study on the emotional drivers of engagement in Japan, we found that the sense of being valued by your boss was a key trigger to feelings of engagement. The “I am an island” boss doesn’t need to feel valued, so they forget to provide that feeling for their staff. One way to help people feel valued is by giving regular feedback on their work. Some major firms have ditched the annual performance review in favour of ongoing reviews throughout the year. The idea is to institutionalise feedback throughout the organisation. We need to be doing the same – always looking for opportunities to do so. We have to become “good finders” rather than “mistake finders”.

Bosses who were poor listeners were felt to be ineffective. What can so hard about listening? We are doing it all the time and have been doing to for years. The problems is not actually with listening itself, the act of listening, but the variety of listening we employ. “The lights are on but you’re not home” is a lyric from the song “Addicted To Love” by Robert Palmer that describes talking to someone whose eyes are open, but they are not hearing you, because they are so distracted. This can be the boss. They are so preoccupied with their own worries, issues, concerns and thoughts that they are not really taking in what their staff member is telling them, so they are effectively ignoring everything. Or they might be smarter than that and employ pretend listening, where they are faking it, but are equally distracted. This is really insulting for staff because they feel the boss thinks they are so dumb, they can be so easily snowed. What staff really want is empathetic listening, where the boss not only gets the words, but has their one feelings resonate with the plight or aspirations of the staff member.

Bosses who are self centered don’t attract staff loyalty. Feeling you are cog in the wheel of the bosses ever upwardly mobile brilliant career is not motivating. These bosses are always focused on how they look to those above. They steal ideas, initiatives, innovations as their own genius ideas from their staff. If things go well, they claim all the credit for themselves. If things go badly, they become like Teflon and push all the blame down the ranks, to those “dolts” at the bottom. Engagement levels are bound to be abysmal and turnover a problem, if this is the boss’s modus operandi. Bosses who realise that they can’t move up without competent, credible successors to replace them, are going to be sharing the glory. They will send complimentary emails about a staff member’s work, copied to their own boss. They will mention the name of excellent workers in the boss level meetings. They will become a leadership factory because every organization needs leaders and really values people who can produce the next generation of leaders.

“Not invented here” is a common problem within organisations. Another smarty pants division comes up with a new whiz bang and the other divisions have to follow the lead. They actually resist. The same thing can happen with bosses who are not open to ideas from below. We want innovation to drive the business, to outmaneuver rivals, but usually we don’t see many great ideas percolating to the surface. One of the reasons is that bosses act as stoppers in the top of the idea flask. They believe they are more intelligent, knowledgeable, experienced, capable and visionary than the troops, so they don’t value the latter’s contributions.

The troops feel frustrated that they cannot have a voice and that their ideas are summarily dismissed out of hand. As we move up through the echelons of the organization, we get further and further away from the front line, which is where all the best market knowledge is located. We don’t spend time with the clients anymore, we miss the latest changes in the sector. By ignoring the ideas of their followers, leaders are closing off valuable hints on market changes, competitor tactics, nascent consumer trends and where the puck is going so we can skate there.

Bosses need to give regular and valuable feedback. They need to listen carefully to the team and to take their ideas seriously. They have to have big mind and promote their subordinates reputations to the senior management in the company if they ever want to climb higher up the greasy pole to the top. Knowledge is pointless unless it is applied. So knowing all of this means nothing unless behaviors are altered and changes in behavior are incorporated into daily work. If your leaders are not able to do this, then don’t expect teamwork to be as strong or as effective as it needs to be, for the enterprise to win in the marketplace.