Leaders of Monkey Business

I guess I believe that you know a leader when you see one. It’s not his title. It’s not the location of her office. It’s not one’s compensation package. It’s not experience, education, or eloquence. I once heard a leader defined as one who gives power to other people. I don’t know many so-called leaders who do that.

There’s one thing leaders do that’s completely antithetical to the above definition. At first, a follower might be impressed by this thing. In time, it drives all followers crazy.

I’m talking about the common leadership trait that’s manifested in one’s complete control over schedule. Let’s say the leader calls an important meeting involving 20 fairly important people in the organization. The meeting is a week away, and the 20 invitees move heaven and earth so they can attend. Other important meetings are rescheduled. Flights are cancelled and re-booked. Medical visits, even surgeries, are put off. To be one of the 20 is what all followers want.

The day before or the day of the meeting, the leader calls it off. It’s still important, but the leader has had something even more important come up. The 20 get back to work until they’re summoned to the leader’s next meeting, which might also be cancelled.

The more important thing that has resulted in this chaos is almost never that important. Another CEO has asked for a meeting. An old friend is passing through town and wants to spend some time catching up. The CEO is invited to play golf in Scotland. (Some would say that’s pretty important.)

What’s the deal here? Does the leader want to make sure everyone knows he’s in control? Is she just that insensitive to the lives of the followers?

It doesn’t matter what the answer is. The leader is engaged in monkey business, pure and simple. And we’re the monkeys.

1. 

   E. says:

   October 19, 2009 at 6:18 am

   http://www.eclectipundit.com/2007/09/mark-knopfler-punish-monkey.html

   E.
2. 

   John Phillips says:

   October 19, 2009 at 6:48 am

   Great post, E. Thanks for also making it a comment to my post. Hope all is well.

   John