LeaderShip, ManagerBoat – Relationship vs. Task

Relationship vs. Task : What happens when you put task over relationship . We will win our point but we will lose the people . John Townsend gives a good illustration of this principle.

I once worked with a management team in a company that wanted me to get its factory workers producing at a faster rate. Management thought the work was getting done too slowly and that current productivity levels didn’t reflect the workers’ true capacity. When I asked these executives what they were doing to motivate their employees to work more, I expected them to mention things like bonuses, prizes, team outings, and offers for advanced training. No such luck. “They have a job,” they said. That was it. The workers should appreciate their gainful employment. Their answer dismayed me, so I talked long and hard with these execs about their attitude. If that’s how they really felt, I said, I could guarantee that the employees would have a similar attitude, but in reverse: “This company is lucky to have me.” It always trickles down. It took a long time, but finally these leaders started seeing their employees not merely as a means to an end, but as people with lives and dreams — just like the executive team. I had to combat a total lack of empathy, and that battle cost the company a great deal of time and money before the executives finally learned the lesson.

Townsend, John. The Entitlement Cure: Finding Success in Doing Hard Things the Right Way (p. 58). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.