Reciprocating Authority
What is it? And why you should care?
Power is sought in business, politics, military, academics, sports, entertainment, religion, literally everywhere. The question is why?
I believe too many people pursue power for the wrong reasons, to control things or to assert one’s will on others. It’s akin to the command and control with which the military is run. In the military it works for a variety of reasons, but in business it's not as effective. Now, in a full employment economy, coupled with younger generations in the workforce, it's even less effective. Today's employees don’t want to work in a command and control environment, and they will not tolerate it. With talent in short supply, today’s employees will just leave if they don’t like their leader’s style. As the saying goes, people join companies and leave their bosses.
I have learned a more compelling definition of power: The speed with which you translate your intention into reality. Think about that, as leaders we are committed to bringing intention into reality, and the faster we are able to do so the more powerful we become. Because in business, it’s all about execution.
I see leaders using force, intimidation or fear to drive human behavior to produce desired outcomes. Many leaders use incentives to impact behavior to produce outcomes, which works only as long as I’m motivated by the incentive.
I believe there is a more effective way. Power is to be given away. True leadership is giving authority to others to make things happen. In business this means delivering a result or desired outcome.
What then, is Reciprocating Authority?
Every leader wants the same thing from the people they lead, trust and respect. Many leaders believe it should be afforded to them because of their attained position. In today’s world, leaders must earn trust and respect. I believe that the best way to get trust and respect is first to give trust and respect away to those we lead. When we give trust and respect to others, they will reciprocate trust and respect back to us. Guess what. The people we lead want the same thing we do as leaders.
I’d like you to consider that employees are like players on a team. Each brings different strengths to the team. It’s the coach’s job to put players in positions to leverage their strengths for the betterment of the team. Similarly, a leader's job is to identify the strengths of their employees and to put them in a position to leverage those abilities for the betterment of the organization.
Leaders operate with many limitations: money, time, people, available skills and any number of other resources. The one resource leaders have an abundance of is authority.
By giving authority away to those they lead, leaders deliver on many fronts. First, it accelerates action towards results and desired outcomes. Second, it creates opportunities to develop others and expand their capabilities and leadership, growing the pie of capable leaders in an organization. Third, it demonstrates your trust and respect for those you lead, which will be paid back to you, resulting in you becoming a more powerful leader. With this additional power, you will be more effective at propelling your organization forward with velocity.
By giving authority away to those you lead you will generate mutual trust and respect, which creates a virtuous circle, which I call Reciprocating Authority.
Doing so has us living consistent with the Universal Divine Principle: What You Sow, So Shall You Reap.