Today's TED Talk was by Simon Sinek, the author of the best seller Start With Why.
Since it is well known that there is a palpable culture of fear in the system, I was drawn to this talk. Sinek is a not only a compelling writer but also a compelling speaker. He puts forth that great leaders make their team feel safe. If someone acts or thinks "If I don't follow the rules, I could lose my job." That is a red flag that the staff does not feel safe. Not feeling safe is a bad system for survival. It is the leader that sets the tone and depending on the tone the team may feel trust and cooperation or fear and uncertainty. Through the millennia we have developed a deep-seated contract within our species.
If we feel that our leader will sacrifice us to meet her own agenda, then we feel that they have violated this contract. This is the reason we feel outraged at the huge bonuses that CEO's receive when they are laying off their employees. We understand that they have not made their team safe, that they have engendered neither trust nor cooperation which clearly goes against our ingrained moral code.
It is up to the leader to create a circle of safety. Leaders need to create opportunities, provide education and discipline when necessary with growth as the goal. Sinek commented that when times are tough, you don't decide to lay off a child from your family. When the child comes home with a C on the report card, you don't fire the child. Well, we all know that there are all types of families out there, but clearly we recognize that it would be good parenting to do so. But then isn't what we recognize as good parenting actually good leadership. Good parents want to create opportunities, provide education and discipline when necessary in order to develop strong, capable, well-balanced, contributing members of society.
When we use our authority to force own agenda, we are not developing trust and cooperation and the team will not follow when a critical situation develops.
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