A633.6.5.RB_HallMike

I think I’ve stated it at least several times in this class and multiple times in past classes – the most enjoyable aspect of this curriculum is the facts that I have either witnessed a ton of the material or I have had it actually happen to me and the “vicious circle for leaders” in another example of this.  In this case, I witnessed it, but I immediately recognized the scenario from my experience.  In the cycle, a leader gets concerned about an employee so he becomes more hands on, which lowers the confidence of the employee which then leads he to defer to the leader more (closer to level 3 followership), which demonstrates a lower skill to the employer which further makes the employer concerned (Obolensky 2012).  This cycle repeats itself until someone can break it.  With that being said, in my experience breaking this cycle is next to impossible.  The example that came to mind was when one of my buddies made a small mistake that he got lit up for.  This made him think he needed to get permission for everything (which wasn’t the case – was a good example of level 3 followership gone wrong) which further upset the CO, which further dug my friend into a deeper ditch of lower confidence (both his and the CO’s in him).  This cycle continued unabated until he was essentially useless as a watchstander.  It took months after the CO left before he was able to build back up his confidence.  Important to note is that his diminished confidence hurt his position with the crew as they sensed his unease when making decisions not to mention the fact that they also picked up on the lack of trust towards him from the CO.  The bottom line is that the vicious circle can affect the entire organization, not just one person (as I said, the lack of confidence in him led to his uselessness as a watchstander which meant the other JOs had to pick up his slack, adding more stress to an already stressful situation). 

So with the vicious circle in mind, what can a leader do to essentially create the opposite effect and turn the cycle into a positive one?  In 1 word, I think empowerment is a great start.  Empowerment is when an employer provides employees the freedom to successfully do what they want to do rather than getting them to do what the employer wants him to do (Whetten & Cameron, 2011).  This means that the cycle is starting at the bottom with the leader taking a less hands on approach.  The causes the follower’s confidence to increase which means he defers less, which means he demonstrates more skill (because he is moving towards level 5 followership of making decisions and informing the boss at a convenient time), which make the leader more confident in their ability, which make them less hands on with the employee.  The end result is you have an empowered employee that is actively utilizing level 5 followership.  Again, I don’t think you necessarily need a system or even a circle – empower your employee and everything else will fall into place.

Obolensky, N. (2012). Complex adaptive leadership, embracing paradox and uncertainty. Gower Publishing Company.

Whetten, D., & Cameron, K. (2011). Developing management skills. (Eighth ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc.