Avoiding Continual Tensions
Earlier this month I came across this survey suggesting that nearly half of all workers think their bosses are incompetent. This can make for a difficult working environment.
In my book Essence of Leadership, I identified 5 reasons for continual tensions in organizations:
- Differences between subordinates and bosses (the boss is accountable for a subordinate’s behaviour and contribution).
- Differences between the operating businesses and the group centre (i.e. the centre is focused on a broad range of interests while business units are more concerned with the timely and efficient delivery of services or products).
- Differences between internally and externally-focused people (people with different stakeholders and protocols may not always see eye-to-eye).
- Differences between people who are more sales-oriented as opposed to service-oriented (the tension between getting the sale and provide good service).
- Differences between organizations that have introduced empowerment as opposed to being more controlling.
An awareness that these tensions are affecting your workplace can be the first step towards dealing with them. It takes trust, transparency and discipline–for subordinates who don’t agree with (or worse, don’t respect) their bosses, speaking openly about responsiblities and where the business is going, as well as trying to understand one another’s motivations, can help to improve a difficult situation.
