GreatRidge Station

As I noted last week, I’m troubled by the way Transformation has been co-opted and cheapened by so many trend-setters. Having said that, let me point out that I’m not giving up on transformation as a concept. The fact is, I depend on it.

The idea that “all motivation is temporary” is true only in the absence of transformation. There are times, in leadership as in parenting, when one must say “do it because I said so,” but this serves best when used as a teaching tool or for trust-making. Years ago, I was overseeing a group of people working on an intranet resource for a large department of a certain local company. Since I was the person responsible for the project, I designed an architecture of information that would support the complex flow of information. When I rolled it out to the group, there was a lot of complaining about its complexity–one person pointed out that “this just doesn’t make sense.”

I sat down with the group and asked them to trust me on this. I told them that my rationale was not going to be immediately obvious, but within three weeks, my system would prove itself, and they would thank me for it. I explained that since I was responsible, I would take the heat if it didn’t work. While I could have pushed the issue and won by coercion (in fact, I wanted to do it that way), I somehow found the ability to ask for their support.

Three weeks later, the system had grown exponentially, with an almost bewildering array of data. One of the team members came to me at that point, and said “I had no idea what you were up to, and I was sure you were wrong. I just didn’t see what you saw, and now I understand why you made us do it this way.”

The good news of that event was that the whole team learned something about vision and planning. I used transactional leadership (though I was as collaborative as possible) to lead them toward transformation. Many of the people on that team have gone on to other roles where they plan and develop visions and goals all the time. If our work has meaning, then leaders have to understand that there are times when we have to be tough in order to help others grow. Transaction ought to lead others to transformation whenever possible.
I believe in transformation. But I believe that for transformation to be meaninful, we must apply it in areas of life that are meaningful. Transformation helps people make sense of things, and move beyond just “doing a job.” Transformation it is a key element in developing shalom in one’s life, and shalom is a restored relationship with God first, and with others. Transformation is learning, even in the workplace, to obey the greatest commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

That is true transformation. That is true shalom. Anything less is a counterfeit.

I had a conversation with a friend last week. It appears that his boss has had a major change in attitude, and that change has not been good. He explained how, over the last two years, a variety of pressures and changes in the workplace have caused his boss to become petty, controlling, and toxic. This person has been confident, supportive, and a real team-builder in years past. So, what changed?

As near as I can tell, it sounds to me like the position has outgrown this boss. The requirements of the job are such that he or she (I don’t know if the boss is a man or a woman) is frantically trying to get a grip on a system that has become too complex for him/her to handle. As a result, there is a growing feeling of desperation, and that gets passed along to the rank-and-file workers, and they experience it as job-related stress.

Employees respond to stress in a variety of ways:

• Some shut down and disengage from the job. I saw this years ago when I first started in the business world. One of the managers in my area had a large calendar in his office. The only dates highlighted on the calendar were the days he was not at work. He planned his weekends and his vacations so he could look forward to the time away from his office. He had been beaten up by his director so many times that getting away from work was the focus of his life.
• Some get aggressive, hostile, and confrontational. These are the people who poison the well for everyone: Some are hostile, some are bitter. I worked in one setting–as a consultant, fortunately–where there was one employee who was constantly battling with someone. A bad boss had made him so cranky that no one could have a conversation with him without it turning into a shouting match. Thankfully, I managed to stay on his good side. Honestly, though, I don’t know why.
• Some become passively aggressive. It was July 3, and I’ll never forget the date. I was working for a company that did R&D and manufacturing. That day, over the noon hour, our Quality Assurance Manager committed suicide at work. The research I did at that time suggested that this was the ultimate act of passive aggression toward a boss or an organization. That’s an extreme case, but it represents just how far dysfunctional workplace pressures can push someone.
• Some bow out. At some point, people come to the conclusion that enough is enough. If they consider themselves to be valuable employees, they begin to look elsewhere for opportunities. In most cases, they seek out places where they believe they will be appreciated, and I have known some to take pay cuts just to get into a healthier workplace.
• Some hunker down. There are always the employees that seek to become invisible. They do their jobs, but they find convenient ways to disappear when the boss is about. Whenever there is a question, they will not offer an answer, but simply redirect and fade into the woodwork, so to speak.

I’ve found myself troubled by the conversation about this newly-dysfunctional boss. What makes the difference? Why do some leaders become better when the heat is one, and why do some resort to miserable, destructive tactics? I suspect that it has to do with the leader going into a child-like, emotional self-defense pattern. Rather than choosing to rise above the circumstances, they burrow under them in hopes of protecting themselves.

It’s a great mystery. My advice–if you are a leader and you find yourself getting into this kind of pattern, choose your response wisely. First, and I’m serious about this: pray about it. Second, get some help through mentorship or ongoing education, to help you understand the scope of your responses, from the logical to the emotional to the moral. Finally, if you can’t resolve the issue of your own behavior, have the courtesy and the courage to move on. That’s not an easy choice, but it may be the right one in some cases.

If you work for one of these dysfunctional bosses, I recommend the Matthew 18 approach. Confront his/her once on by yourself. If the situation does not improve, take one or two others (not to gang up, but to ensure that the truth is spoken in a loving, compassionate way). If the situation still does not improve, then, as painful as this may be, it it probably time to move on and find another job. My dad always said that “Life’s too short to work at a job you hate.”

I realize that these are not final answers. They are, however, some good guidelines for considering your actions, no matter which side of the equation you are on.

We got a piece of mail at our house over the last day or two. It was a piece of advertising, and the tagline said:

Let us transform your life.

And the target market all said: “Transformation. That’s good. I’ll have some.”

It struck me how a perfectly good word–transformation–has been co-opted by the marketeers. There are a lot of words with solid etymology and powerful meanings that have been grabbed, tossed in the crucible of overuse, and then beaten into cliches. Transformation is only the most recent casualty. Think back, and lament the cheapening of such words as “paradigm,” “methodology,” “excellence,” “empowerment,” or “integrity.”

One of the problems leaders face is learning to communicate ideas meaningfully, within a particular organizational context (there–two more devalued words). Sometimes, such jargon terms can be helpful, but usually, no.

One of my favorite films, Local Hero includes the following interchange between company president Happer, and middle-manager MacIntyre:

• Happer: You do know what a comet looks like, don’t you MacIntosh?
• McIntyre: I feel sure I’d know one if I’d see one.
• Happer: Well, you’ll get the idea.
• McIntyre: Yes, sir.
• Happer: And you’ll call me?
• McIntyre: Yes, sir.

The problem here, and with words that get turned into cliches and jargon, is that everyone assumes they understand the meaning. No further explanation is needed, or so they believe.

If it is the leaders’ job to help followers make sense of events, then the leaders had better know how to communicate ideas without resorting to jarberish–that’s my word for jargon and jibberish, though, as an alternative, I would also propose jibbergon. Communication is rarely an easy task. Think–how would you communicate your ideas to a third-grader–a third-grader who doesn’t work at your company. I faced that challenge once in a manufacturing setting with very low literacy levels, and it made me rethink my entire communication style. It is possible to do this–and do it well–without insulting anyone’s intelligence.

So, next time someone devalues your mission-critical verbal parameters for introducing task-specific clarification for organizational priorities, please push them down and kick sand in their faces for me. And if the first part of that sentence sounded like you, please kick sand in your own face, as well.