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Is our focus on where we work misplaced?
Today, I want to share an interesting article I came across from Gallup, titled “Are Remote Workers and Their Organizations Drifting Apart?” The article states that employee engagement in America is on the rise. But there’s a red flag: Remote workers appear to feel increasingly disconnected from their organization’s mission and purpose. Why is this a concern? Well, according to the article, it can impact job performance and employee loyalty. Therefore, managers are advised to “hold one meaningful conversation per week with each employee” to keep them engaged. I find this fascinating. I don’t understand why we’re so focused on where people perform their work. If people’s engagement in their…
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What social media can teach us about followership
What can social media teach us about followership? In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in interest regarding followership. Partly, this is because our attitude towards being a follower has changed. When I interviewed people in the early 2000s, many portrayed followers in a negative manner. Words like ‘sheep,’ ‘puppets,’ and ‘yes-sayers’ were used to convey an image of followers as passive, uncritical minions. Today, many associate followers with individuals engaged on social media platforms. In these settings, followers decide who, when, and how they want to follow. In other words, the power to follow is in the hands of the followers. Now, imagine what would happen if…
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Why women used to hunt
For centuries, people have believed that among our earlier ancestors, men were hunters while women were gatherers. But a growing number of archeological findings are proving this to be wrong. Among other things, women in numerous societies have been found buried with big-game hunting tools. After analyzing data from dozens of foraging societies around the world, scholars at Seattle Pacific University, US, have found that women hunt in at least 79% of these societies. And why wouldn’t they? The first human societies were small. In these so-called band societies, there lived 20-40 individuals. To survive, our ancestors had to make use of each other’s skills and differences: regardless of gender or…
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Why most companies aren’t value-driven!
Many companies claim they’re value-driven. They have values displayed on websites and intranets, they’re printed and hung on walls and repeated at conferences and in advertisements. But displaying values and living your values are two very different things. Values are meant to guide the owners, managers and employees of a company when doing business. But for many companies, values appear to be something to strive for, rather than something to live by. And the difference is important. For example, a common value is honesty. Now I believe that companies with this value want to be honest, but what happens when things get tough? When telling the truth means losing a large…
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It’s harder to follow than to lead
I’ve noticed something interesting. Most people assume that it’s harder to lead than to follow. Now, why would they assume this? Followers choose whom they want to follow and this is not necessarily easy. For example: How do you know that the person you follow will take you one step closer to your vision, goal, or objective? How do you know you’re not being lied to or cheated? How do you know that the person you follow isn’t just interested in his or her own power? And what if the person doesn’t live up to your expectations, what do you do? Many dictators have gained power by tricking people into…
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Why you can’t define followers by people’s actions
One reason why people struggle to understand true followership is that they try to define followers by how people act. For example, if people obey orders, they are usually classified as followers. When it comes to politics, followers are believed to be those who vote for a political candidate. Now, here’s why this type of definition doesn’t work. It’s very hard to know WHY people act the way they do. There can be a million reasons why someone obeys an order. Perhaps they WANT to obey or maybe they don’t have a choice. Perhaps someone threatens them or maybe they’re afraid of losing their job. People can also obey because they…
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Followers are not tools of a leader
Hi everyone, I’m sorry for not having posted anything here for a few weeks. I’ve been swamped with work related to my upcoming book (in Swedish) about the art of following. Anyway, I thought I’d take a break from everything and quickly post a short video about something I find very important. I sometimes hear people refer to followers as tools. Usually, the person saying this believes that leaders function as some kind of decision-maker. That the leader has a plan and will then use the followers to ensure the plan is successful. According to this view, followers are nothing but puppets, controlled by a single individual. But as we’ve…
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Leadership is an industry
Leadership is an industry. We mustn’t forget that. There are many people who make a lot of money thanks to our interest in leadership. But how did leadership become such a successful industry? Well, one reason may be the way leadership is marketed. It targets decision-makers with one very simple message: You’re important! In fact, you’re crucial to the success of your company, political party, school or what have you. Therefore, you need to invest money and time in yourself and your leadership. If you do that, you will be able to get more people to do what YOU want. Talk about appealing to people’s egos. No wonder leadership has…
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The role as leader is temporary
Hi everyone, here’s another short post. Today I want to share with you something that very few people realise about leadership. In previous posts, I’ve discussed the fact that people only follow leaders when they want to achieve something. And we kind of pick and choose leaders depending on what we want to achieve. This means we have to rethink what it means to be a leader. When people think of leaders, they often think of a person who has certain influence over a group of people that is more or less static over time. This is important. It means for example that we expect managers to be leaders at work…
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Our focus on leadership threatens democracy
Many of us are fortunate enough to live in a democracy and most of us still defend the idea that a society should be governed by the people. And yet many are convinced that people need leaders to guide them. Now, think about it. How can we argue that countries should be governed by the people and at the same time believe people must be led? It’s like saying we need a democracy where people are told how to vote. What worries me is that hardly anyone considers the absurdity of it all. We are so deeply influenced by the leadership industry that we don’t even realise how it’s affecting our view of…