“Consider this a verbal warning.”

Ever had a leader who ruled with fear?  The kind of leader who had a roster of demands and deadlines and if you mess up anything, just once, their knee jerk, reactive leadership style had you on the receiving end of a sentence like the one above?

Leaders who use their authority to threaten rather than groom are doing their staff a disservice.  At the end of the day, most people are not abusing the system and are not making mistakes out of laziness.  For most people, their jobs are the biggest part of their life and they want nothing more than to grow and like it while they are there.  Most errors made by employees are an opportunity for development, not an opportunity to demean.

Ultimately, if leaders respect their employees and attempt to coach and develop them into better employees, they will get much more from their staff in terms of productivity.  People who feel valued and have an opportunity to learn and grow at their jobs tend to be greater contributors to the overall organizational success.  Who doesn’t want that?

Conversely, employees who are threatened or penalized for every error or met with panic when ever they make or discover a mistake, are likely to contribute as little as possible to get by.  Contributing employees are better than barely-sliding-by employees, any day; even if you have to pay them a little more. Because ultimately, you will get more than you are paying for.

A leader who rules with fear creates an uncomfortable work environment for me.  As a result, I have created a short list of questions I ask in interviews to get a feel for what kind of leader I could be working for.  Feel free to add or take away from this list:

1. How important is developing and mentoring your staff to you? Any leader will answer this positively, but it sets the stage for additional questioning.

2. What are some ways and/ or tools you use to coach and develop your staff? This one is easy.  They should have an answer.  Any hesitation at all is not a good sign.  All good leaders are about creating a good work culture.  The culture is made of of the people, not just the work!

3. What is the most effective form of communication with your staff? When a leader says email to me, I am concerned.  While email is great for many things, the most effective form of communication in any setting should be face to face.

4. An employee presents a deliverable you assigned to them, by your specified deadline, but it is not at all what you had in mind.  It is clear they worked hard on the task, it just doesn’t meet your expectations.  How do you address your concerns? While no one is ever going to say, “I am going to bite their head off,” you can generally get a sense for what kind of person you are speaking with when they answer. Just as they are able to get a sense for you when they ask you questions. I had one man I interviewed with answer this question with, “Well, that will not happen because I communicate my directives clearly.”  I will let you decide whether or not I was still interested in taking the job.

As a side note, I often wonder how leaders who lead with threats and strike fear (of a write up or suspension) into their employees, stay employed.  No one deserves or wants to work for someone like that, so who is hiring these kinds of leaders?

Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule. There are employees who don’t mind a dictator for a leader.  There are employees who are constantly trying to scheme and need a dictator for a leader to produce results.  But that is exploring another topic centered around “job fit,”  which is a topic for another time.

Amber C.

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