Category: Leadership

In the early 1800s, weavers feared the end of their profession.

Automated looms produced more fabric, faster, and at a much lower cost. Weavers were going out of business.

Ned Ludd tried to fix the problem by smashing the new technology. He sparked an uprising that required a military response. Mr. Ludd became immortalized in the term: luddite.

Traditional luddites did not hate progress. They resisted progress to protect personal incomes. Luddites wanted a strong labour position. Smashing machines forced factories to hire workers, instead of replacing them with technology.

Luddite Leadership

We all risk luddite thinking. It can infect any group: political parties, unions, and social clubs.

Luddites smash good ideas, censor discussion, and fear debate. Most of us have acted like luddites at some point.

• I am the Prime Minister. You shall speak as I say on this issue.
• We must not mention in-house debates! It makes us look divided.
• Do not mention the cost of THOSE groups. We sound unsupportive.

Luddite thinking is a form of (toxic) group-think.  It empowers ‘leaders’ beyond ability.  Luddite leaders confuse passion for their cause with true leadership. They attack colleagues using moralistic fear mongering.

Luddites operate with a sense of authority; dizzy with zeal to protect group-think. They substitute passion for thoughtfulness and use an old labour trick: toe the line or have your kneecaps whacked.

Modern luddites lust for stronger positions: political groups manoeuvre for better public opinion; unions stick handle for advantage with government. Luddites use thuggery to protect trade secrets, when they could help their cause more, by sharing great ideas.

How to Fix Luddite Leadership

Luddites have no compunction; they can always escalate threats, intimidate more. Like mosquitoes swarming a bulb at night, luddites cluster around contrived power.

An individual union, fighting for a raise with the only car factory in town, faces a constrained power struggle. If there were other unions and multiple car factories, luddites would lose control. They’d be forced into open debate by competing groups. They could not micromanage the conversation.

Meaningful debates, about real issues, require diverse opinions. But real issues can be costly. They cause change. Change brings new positions, new power struggles. Given the choice, most groups would rather crush debate than lose the power they paid so much to win.

Luddite Control

Every space that supports one, dominate voice risks luddite leadership. Concentration of power invites luddite control.

True leadership allows debate. Real leaders take risks by sharing facts. They give power away, instead of hoarding it with jealous love. True leaders do not want sheep; they want team members with ideas of their own.

And for those of you who worry about whether you might be a luddite, do not worry. Luddites do not reflect on their own leadership. They assume they are right, and that everyone else should get in line.

It takes great courage to oppose the Ned Ludds around us. It takes character to not become one ourselves.

We can let luddites bully and scare us into submission, or work to change to rules that gave them power in the first place. Will we take the risk?

photo credit: express.co.uk

I got into trouble for doing what I thought was a good thing. I wrote a letter to the paper.

I challenged the Minister of Health to come down to our hospital, Hospital X, and see for himself patients languishing in hallways, ambulances backed up.

I dared him.

The board Chair blew up. The CEO, the Chief of Staff, the President and the Vice-President of the Medical Staff Association delivered angry lectures.

My department Chief scolded me. I felt really stupid.

Worthy motives cannot ignore politics. Truth needs a proper package to drive influence. When a wall blocks our path to freedom, truth told for its own sake can make the wall collapse on top of us instead of opening to freedom.

What do Boards do?

Boards govern organizations. They do not manage them, staff do. Boards meet a few times per year, or as often as once per month.

Jim Brown lays out core functions for board directors in his little book, The Imperfect Board Member: Discovering the Seven Disciplines of Governance Excellence (read it!).

Here are a few of the facets and responsibilities of a board of directors:

Reflect – Understand and think about the results of the organization’s operations and the rationale for deviations from projections.

Respect – Listen. Listen to understand the members; invite input from members; help members understand board actions and organizational results.

Select, Redirect, Eject – choose people with the skills, values and credibility to fulfill key responsibilities; remove them if they compromise the organization’s effectiveness.

Direct, Protect – define and refine the vision, mission and values; determine key results areas; create and use a monitoring system.

Expect, Inspect, Correct – Articulate board expectations of the organization and CEO and maintain them. Understand and comply with expectations within the board and contribute to an effective team.

How to Influence a Board

Ideally, all board directors put themselves in your shoes. They show deep understanding and compassion, like your Grandma. But even Grandma loses compassion, if you pick a fight.

Do you want influence? Address what matters to others.

Positive influence drives controlled change towards a known target. Attack creates reaction, unknown and uncontrolled. Try to repackage your issue into a board issue. For example:

• Talk about how your issue represents a larger problem.
• Demonstrate that you understand the challenges the board faces.
• Find something, anything, positive to say.
• Offer help.
• Suggest a solution.
• Gracefully answer questions, even when questions prove your audience doesn’t ‘get it’.
• Speak for a group. Numbers matter.

Write Smart Letters

What emails do you read right away? What gets deleted before opening?

We cannot resist emails addressed to us, from people we know, about issues with personal meaning. If you want to make a big impact, you need relationship.

Focus attention on one or two people. Use the list above. Add value. Make them want to open your emails. Then hit them with what you want changed. Remember, long lists of complaints sent to a big group are a waste of time. They get deleted.

Trouble

Churchill said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

No matter how polished your politic, you will irritate. But if you influence well, you can get in trouble for doing good things and not feel stupid about it.

Great captains pick fights they cannot win to inspire their team. People do not follow leaders who avoid all risk. They want someone who will shout back at a bully and be willing to take what that brings.

Some people never cry in movies but get misty-eyed at financial statements showing better than expected earnings. Things move us differently.

Emotional messages move a fraction of the audience. Purely logical speeches leave most of the audience cold. We do not respond to the same spheres of motivation.

Inspire Your Team

Leaders must move everyone. They must speak to many spheres of motivation: reason, reward/punishment, conscience, social pressure and emotion.

Audiences get sick of messages that do not speak to their concerns. They tune out or start their own conversations.

Leaders start to resent teams that don’t respond. Leaders believe they did a good job. But many times, they just repeated data or concepts over and over with increasing frustration. Their message left out most of the team. They failed to inspire.

Angry Doctors

Why do union bosses get angry? They believe their cause is just. They want to inspire their members. They hold an intolerant, easily offended disdain for bullying by government or industry. They know they could lose their job.

Doctors avoid anger during talks with government. Is it because they:

1. Are too proud to show emotion?
2. Have no emotion to show?
3. Don’t see a team to inspire?
4. Don’t believe anger will work?
5. Cannot lose their jobs no matter what happens?
6. Believe it’s useless to fight?
7. Have been burned before and are too scared to try again?
8. Feel it goes against their nature?

Doctors say anger never works. But they get angry all the time. Challenge doctors about how smoking laws limit freedom, or some other favourite ‘social justice’ issue, then sit back and watch the fireworks. No, many doctors think anger works just fine for some things.

But should doctors get angry in fights with government?

Risk Both Ways

News reports about cuts to any profession – teachers, nurses or policemen – always show some emotion. There’s anger. Passion. But from the pictures of doctors in the papers, you’d hardly know anything has happened. A popular photo of a surgical team on call almost shows a bit of emotion (Oncall4ON).

Picking the wrong fight, at the wrong time, can ruin a leader and the team. Misusing anger can create remorse that takes a generation to forget. But letting it build threatens an explosion.

At some point, ‘calm and thoughtful’ starts to look like unfazed and ambivalent. Is it time for doctors to show a little emotion over cuts to healthcare? Or should doctors never show emotion? What do you think?