The time of top-down hierarchical leadership styles—where leaders are expected to have all the answers at any given time, and employees are expected to fall in line no matter what— has come and gone. This command-and-control leadership could be counterproductive to engagement, employee well-being and even the bottom line.
Tiffany Gaskell, co-CEO of global firm Performance Consultants, headquartered in London and New York City, believes we are emerging into, and advocates for, a more collaborative, learning culture. She shares how a focus on employee potential can establish an “interdependence” where everyone flourishes.
How is a command-and-control leadership style harmful to staff, the wider organization and ultimately to leaders themselves?
On an optimistic note, the world of work is progressively emerging beyond traditional hierarchical cultures. However, you can still spot remnants of the command-and-control leadership style within organizations. That’s why the startling idea that leaders have all the answers and people invariably have to obey them, prevails amongst even some leading organizations to this very day.
In a 2023 Gallup report, a mere 31 percent of managers are engaged in their workspace. When looking at the flip side of that statistic, we’re told that 69 percent of managers are actively disengaged!
Now, when aligning that report with the realities of hierarchical dependency, command-and-control cultures and dismissal of potential, it’s safe to imagine the bandwidth of operational stress that would ensue all the way from the top to the bottom of this perceived hierarchy.
A myriad of health issues inevitably emerge from chronic stress, burnout being the main one, as well as its countless long-term side effects.
So not only does overdependence on hierarchy and normalization of command-and-control cause harm to the performance and operation of organizations, it’s also a detriment to the physical and mental health of all involved.
It’s precisely then that you begin to think about the concept of employee potential and the opportunities organizations can all too often miss when it comes to cultivating it, because of the command-and-control type of leadership.
This reminds me of what we call the “Learning Zone.” Picture concentric circles, and at the very center is the “Comfort Zone,” a place where a majority of people within hierarchical cultures reside. The Comfort Zone commands a way of working in which quiet corroboration takes center stage, and creative collaboration subsides. In short, talents within organizations are constantly shying away—or at times shunned—from their brilliance and strengths.
However, the Learning Zone, the circle just beyond that, is where culture needs to extend. It’s also referred to as the “Growth Zone” in some iterations of the model, and that’s quite fitting. It bolsters a culture where people are given the space and encouragement to creatively stretch and shape their existing skills: in essence, to grow as people, and fulfill their potential.
In contrast to the hierarchical, top-down norm, you have found in your work that a very different approach improves both individual and organizational performance, one based on collaboration, coaching and recognition that leaders do not always have all the answers. Why does this approach work better?
The key point here is to create an environment where people can lean into their potential and fulfill their purpose. We call this an interdependent culture and this is actually what humanity broadly needs to embrace to rise to the challenges that it is facing. This is completely different to top down and command-and-control hierarchical cultures.
Collaborative culture is the basis of a high-performance culture, coaching is the skill that we learn as we endeavor toward collaboration, and vice versa. It’s such a different way of interacting with people, as we participate in coaching—that is helping others develop—we invariably develop ourselves and our personalities.
I like to see coaching as a manual that human beings never got, an extraordinary machine that each of us yields, the gateway towards collaborative cultures, and in many ways organizational fortification against top-down, command-and-control hierarchical cultures.
How can CHROs advocate for and implement this management style within their organizations?
Measurement and subsequently encouraging metrics are a surefire way for CHROs to positively sway opinion and advocate in turn.
Indeed, according to Gallup, organizations that have engaged cultures achieved on average a 21 percent increase in profitability, a 17 percent boost in productivity, and a 41 percent reduction in absenteeism.
Every organization needs to measure its culture, and where they are in terms of organizational development, to spearhead open and honest feedback and ignite the productive change-making conversations required to impact all levels.
