“A modern trust involves choosing a mix between trust and distrust, between
control and the surrender of control” (Sprenger 2002b, p. 77). Here Sprenger largely
reverses his initial crusade against control – and with a somewhat succinct state-
ment he gets to his point, namely that in reality trust is all a question of the right
balance.
2.3.4 Personal Responsibility
In addition to overly controlling superiors who keep their employees on a short
leash in order to motivate them, achieving just the opposite, there are managers who
let go of responsibility and want to empower their employees. They ask the
following questions: What can I do to make people take responsibility? How do I
best use the potential of my staff? And how do I manage a company where the
employees love to come to work in the morning? Reinhard K. Sprenger has also
dealt with this issue and sought answers to these questions. I would like to include
the core of his responses in this book, as they show how very good leadership
depends on the relationship between the leader and the led.
“We are not a country rich in resources. Our main commodity is the willingness
to join” (Sprenger 2002a, p. 11). We try to utilize machines to the fullest, but we do
not use the same approach with people’s capabilities. In addition to high labor costs
and structural problems, it is the systematic under-challenging of employees that
puts the German economy at risk, laments Sprenger.
Through decades of disenfranchisement, many people have lost the sense of
responsibility for themselves, their motivation and their performance. If something
is expected of them that does not match the exact wording of their job description,
they respond as Pontius Pilate did, washing their hands of it. Who has not heard the
words “I am not responsible” when they asked at the ticket counter why the Inter
City Express train was delayed an hour? Or in a clothes store complaining about the
poor quality of a piece of garment that after the first washing looked like it came
from a second-hand shop? But this mentality is not limited to commerce or public
service.
Games are won in the head. The harder the competition and the faster economic
change, the more important employee attitudes and leadership behavior count.
“There is no more important economic role than shaping the reestablishment of
personal responsibility in a company” (Sprenger 2002a, p. 12).
2.3.4.1 Organized Irresponsibility
There are companies where the staff whines all day long. They are veritable
victims’ clubs. And nobody can do anything about it, no matter what. It is always
the others who are to blame. Hardly anyone accepts full responsibility for their
actions and performance. Each person sits in their limited workspace, in their
100 2 Occupation or Calling: What Makes for Good Leadership?