Satin Lined Boxes

I learned a lot from the Gen Y leaders I worked with in the UK. As we set about reviving a failing organisation, their flair and talent turned adversity into adventure, peppered with many moments of fun.

It causes me to wonder why so many leaders and organisations fall short of using people to their full potential? Why have so many institutions been brought to their knees in recent years as a result? The more I read, the more I feel that we are skirting around the issue.

Is it because we are confused as to purpose of leaders? Convention dictates that the role of 'leader' can only be ascribed to the few who exhibit defined competencies.  So we demand of the few an exhausting combination of qualities and competencies that must impose a hollow quality on life.

I suspect that this is the nub of the problem. For both leader and follower find themselves in satin lined boxes, the former fearful of being found wanting and the latter resentful of being denied opportunities to realise their potential.

What fear compels us to guard our box so jealously and ensure others remain in their box too? Is it this instinct for self-preservation that allowed for unbridled risk in our banking system and for leaders to eschew responsibility as the effects continue to ripple out?

Or, is it because it is tabu for leaders to be followers, so denying any possibility of understanding complexity from below as well as above? Most likely it is a combination of both. Also, memories of being ridiculed make guarded relations preferable to risking oneself in pursuit of genuine relations. 

I suspect it is a failure to confront the ensuing compressed quality of organisation life that is at the heart of Gen Y's impatience for change; as is a profound scepticism that only grindingly high levels of unquestioning activity can deliver performance.

How are these issues being played out in your organisation?