When we want motivate others to change we tend to have two solutions at our disposal: control leadership and context leadership.
You want your child to study. Do you check his diary every day, the homework he has done, write in the class chat to find out if you missed any indication? Are you chaining it to the radiator of the nearest library?
You want your wife not to cheat on you. Do you check her cell phone? Do you make her head so that she doesn't have to look at others? You tell her that cute neighbor hasn't washed her feet from Italy '90s?
Do you want one of your collaborators to arrive on time for work? Do you multiply it if it's late? Do you have holes in the wheels of the car so that he doesn't go out to party in the evening?
All of these solutions are typical of control-based leadership, in which your attempt to lead someone towards a certain goal (leadership comes from "to lead") is mainly based on control mechanism.
The alternative is to work not so much on this lever, but on context within which the behavior is enacted.
In a nutshell, what does all this mean?
It means that if you create an environment around your child in which it is possible for him to calmly discuss what frightens him, you can avoid reading him the secret diary to find out what worries him. (Tanto your child's secret diary, however, your wife will have already secretly read it)
If you build an environment with your partner where sincerity is rewarded and welcome, you won't have to check that important things are kept from you.
If in the company you effectively promote the value of responsibility, then you can avoid checking that your employees are doing their job well. If nothing else, do it for yourself. Checking that the work is done is more strenuous than doing that work yourself!
Where do I want to go? The fact that the leader of the future has to stop working on control and deal only with the context?
No. The leader of the future must learn to distinguish when it is appropriate to check, and when it is better to work on the context.
In fact, there are some situations in which controlling, however much it wears out both the controller and the controlled, is the right thing to do. In others, however, you realize that too many rules limit the freedom of people, who gradually unlearn to think for themselves, to innovate, to put creativity into what they do.
I stumbled upon reading the book "The only rule is that there are no rules”, Which tells about Netflix's re-invention culture, and the authors give us some firm points to decide whether to rely on control or context.
Let's see together 2, which have given me particularly to reflect.
1. High talent density
The first point to question is related to talent density present in the team that we have to coordinate.
We have seen that a leader who works on context strives to give his staff all the information possible so that people can make good decisions and carry out their work without supervision or procedures that control their actions.
If you address a group of highly performing people, you know that probably they will long for freedom and they will give the best of them, if you guide them with the context.
If they are people at first weapons, instead, perhaps the strategy based on control is the most useful to choose.
This principle applies to work, but not only.
Say you have the son eighteen years old who started going to parties on a Saturday night with older friends and are worried about him drinking alcohol and then driving in dangerous conditions. How do you deal with the problem?
You can opt for monitoring and decide which parties your child can go to or not, monitor his actions when he is at the party, geolocate him even when she goes to the bathroom ...
Or you can create a context that makes it align with what you want.
You talk to him about why teens drink and the dangers associated with drunk driving. Maybe you show him a YouTube video about the dangers associated with these situations, and when he clearly understands the seriousness of the dangers associated with driving after drinking, then you let him go to whatever party he wants.
What do you choose? Control or context?
Obviously it depends by several factors, for example by personality of your child himself: if in the past he has shown poor judgment, you could opt for control. If, on the other hand, your child is responsible, perhaps choose the path of context. But remember that if your child is like this, it is because you have worked to make him so!
So, the first question to ask yourself when deciding whether to work on control or context in the workplace is:
what is the talent density I am dealing with?
If it is high, you have a point in favor of the context, otherwise of control.
2. Prevent or innovate?
A second point on which to reflect is linked toobiettivo that we are chasing. More specifically, we need to understand if the task is to prevent possible errors o, instead, that of innovate, to think outside the box.
If you focus on eliminating mistakes, control is better.
For example: I worked for a long time with an important multinational that had construction sites all over the world and those who worked within it were at risk of accidents at work every day. My role was to reduce work related risks.
In this situation, if I had removed job descriptions, procedures, rules and company, there would have been a real one massacres.
If instead I produced airplanes it would be different. In this case, if you did not have a myriad of control procedures to ensure the correct assembly of the components, the possibility of accidents it would increase dramatically.
But if I have the goal of innovate a particular sector, to allow my collaborators to think outside the box, then the main risk for my organization is another. Con is more to make a mistake, but to become overwhelming, not to leave my collaborators the freedom to to give birth to brilliant new ideas to reinvent the business in which I belong.
If you want to deepen the topic and increase the motivation and productivity of your employees or collaborators you can contact us here at the link: https://skillfactor.it/contatti/
Article How to motivate others to change: controlling leadership or context leadership? seems to be the first of Milan psychologist.
