3.2.12.2 Philanthropists
The ability to love is directly related to good leadership and economic success. First
of all, a good leader likes, knows, and accepts himself or herself. A person who
loves himself/herself, radiates the necessary confidence and possesses a charisma
and strength of character that spark enthusiasm in others. A leader must also love
the people with whom and for whom he or she works: supervisors, employees and
customers alike. He or she has to empathize and possess considerable emotional
and social intelligence. Based on the leader’s knowledge of his or her own person,
“life charter” and beliefs, it is possible to better understand others, respond ade-
quately, resolve conflicts productively and transform negative interpersonal
energies into positive ones.
At the same time, the leader is not a family therapist and should be wary of
providing his or her colleagues with “therapy.” It is not the leader’s task to change
people or to intrude on their minds and characters, but to achieve solid results and
meet business goals. You can always work on yourself and your own image, but not
the others.
As a manager I always have to ask myself whether I am actually willing to
accept the other party as an individual person and to acknowledge that they live
according to their own screenplay of life. As Drucker claimed, “Understanding the
people with whom one works and on whom one depends is the first secret to
effectiveness. It is important to use their strengths, their values and their ways of
working” (Drucker 1990b, p. 257).
But this is anything but easy in practice and requires an instinct for the appro-
priate level of closeness and distance. A manager once told me once: “I often find it
a difficult balancing act to be a leader and at the same time to respect my employees
as fellows. I have to maintain a clear position towards my employees in order to
avoid any false fraternization. So I just had a bad experience with a female
employee, who was disappointed because she first thought I was such a nice guy,
and then I expected performance from her.”
3.2.12.3 Appreciation Is Priceless
Those who get too little positive feedback and hear either empty words or nothing
from their boss will resent it and feel worthless and misunderstood – and are
consequently less effective and less thorough. It is little wonder then that 70% of
German workers simply work “by the book.” And the only response many
executives can think of is to tighten control – which is exactly the wrong thing to
do, as it only accelerates the downward spiral of motivation.
With the flattening of hierarchies traditional rewards, such as being promoted to
a higher position, are gone. Managers can however show their employees recogni-
tion, appreciation and attention by other means that are not based on money or
status, but on their personal contribution, and are therefore incentives for the future:
188 3 Systemic Leadership or: Designing a World That Others Want to Be Part Of