IT’S TUESDAY MORNING and the project report you requested from your subordinate David is late. You needed it yesterday and you still don’t have it. As the leader, it’s your job to be in control, to set expectations and ensure everything runs smoothly. You call David into your office and explain that you will be setting up bi-weekly meetings to ensure that his projects stay on target. You are doing what you must as a leader: re-establishing control over the situation.
Question: Did you ask David why he didn’t submit the report on time? And even if you did, what did you do to help him meet his deadline?
Many of us treat leadership like a thermostat: We carefully monitor everything our subordinates do, and whenever there is a deviation from the expected ‘temperature,’ we take corrective action — turning the thermostat up or down to maintain equilibrium through punishment, discipline or increased monitoring. Equilibrium is restored.
No one is to blame for thinking about leadership in this way. This is how we were taught to be effective leaders, and this approach was modelled for us by many of our own bosses. If we don’t behave this way, things will quickly spiral out of control. Chaos will ensue, and we will have failed as leaders. But, this ‘thermostat approach’ to leadership creates an illusion of control — the idea that we can control our subordinates’ every action and behaviour while they’re at work. We can’t.
When you approach leadership with this mindset,
