According to Sprenger, leading means overcoming limiting “in-the-box” think-
ing and allowing and encouraging employees to go beyond borders. We can no
longer afford to search people who fit narrow job profiles as we did in the past. We
must instead create jobs for people in order to use their multiple talents and to
implement these people, their multi-faceted personalities and their individual goals
into the company. Building organizations around people, not pressing people into
existing structures – that is the imperative for today’s leaders (see Sprenger 1999,
p. 240 ff.).
If executives finally let their staff off the leash, they also liberate themselves
from the compulsion to constantly monitor others, from the imagined need to
always do everything themselves, and from perfectionism. And they move their
company forward.
3.2.5.4 Leading Top Performers
What has just been said applies to all employees – albeit in varying degrees – but
especially to the so-called “high potentials.” Knowledge work is becoming increas-
ingly important, and more and more activities are now carried out by highly
qualified specialists. They need a different type of leadership. Actually, however,
this is already a contradiction in terms, because top people are not “led.” To
collaborate with professionals and get the best out of them, you have to offer
them two things: challenges and freedom.
Peak performers will be inspired to give their best solely through challenging,
exciting, meaningful and long-term tasks. They work to get something going, to
create something new, to help shape the future, to leave something permanent
behind. They enjoy activities in which they can contribute all their knowledge
and where they can at the same time learn something new, and can continue to
develop.
If a company cannot provide them that anymore, or a leader fails to put top
performers to good use, they will move on. They normally have no strong attach-
ment to individual companies and are not afraid of change. They are self-aware,
flexible and mobile. There is no one-sided dependence of employer and employee,
but a symbiotic relationship in which both sides need each other equally.
The old supervisory system is already passe ́. Leading top people requires
common values, standards and priorities, as well as adequate information on how
the duties of the employee fit into the company’s strategy. Managers have to give
professionals the opportunity to choose their own projects and to determine their
daily schedules individually. Professionals train themselves constantly in order to
improve their performance; the interference of a supervisor would only decrease
their personal commitment. Furthermore, the continuous transfer of values and
a regular feedback directly to the employees is essential in order to allow them
to judge and to monitor themselves. This feedback also includes the systematic
transfer of best practices. Strong incentives for high potentials are appreciation and
154 3 Systemic Leadership or: Designing a World That Others Want to Be Part Of