Leadership and the Illusion of Control
Photo by Anastasia Belousova
Today’s second topic talks about Ageism.
Word Count: About 850, approximate reading time 5 to 7 minutes. Please share your thoughts in the comments. Please be kind and subscribe to my newsletter.
As we progress in our careers, we are expected to manage ever larger teams and budgets. The outcomes we affect have a more significant impact on the organization’s overall performance. The positions we occupy, manager, director, VP, etc., come with increased positional authority.
We cannot forget that the definitions of management and leadership are not interchangeable. Management is about the process of controlling things or people. Leadership is about getting others to want to do what needs to be done. In a recent Nir and Far newsletter, Nir Eyal discusses the importance of the “locus of control.” Some people have an internal focus and believe their actions guide much of what happens to them. Others focus on the external and believe that luck and fate control the major events in their lives.
Leaders must clearly understand what they can and cannot control. Leaders set the direction and prepare their teams to do the work. Ultimately they must rely on the team to do what is necessary. An analogy is the conductor of an orchestra. The conductor sets the playlist. The music they choose is based on several factors, including the talent of the musicians, what the audience wants to hear, and the specific strengths of guest soloists. The conductor arranges the music based on the acoustics of the venue. They lead the rehearsals, coaching each individual to coax the best possible performance. But in the end, conductors cannot play the music. They rely on musicians.
Leaders rely on their teams. Their job is to prepare, coach, and inspire each person to perform to the maximum of their potential.
Ageism Has Always Been With Us; It Is Our Awareness That Has Increased
Over the past several months, I have noticed an increase in articles and posts focused on ageism. One of them talked about the apparent dismissal of a Canadian new anchor for letting her hair turn gray. I shared a post about the World Economic Forum implying that only young global leaders have innovative ideas. I support the Accomplished Executives, a networking group of senior professionals who are in transition. The group’s mission is to provide education and support to help these individuals find their next opportunity. Ageism is a common discussion topic.
I am currently reading The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. There are two excellent passages in the book that describe ageism. The first focuses on why ageism feels acceptable to leaders regardless of their age.
Leon had survived two mergers and a reorganization, but when he heard the first whispers of this latest restructuring, he was struck by a certainty so strong that it felt like true knowledge: he was going to lose his job. He was fifty-eight years old. He was senior enough to be expensive, and close enough to retirement to be let go without weighing too heavily on anyone’s conscience.
The second passage highlights the value organizations often fail to appreciate when experienced talent is let go.
…this remained in memory as one of the most delightful conversations Leon had ever had, because he’d never talked with anyone about the way he could tune in and out of shipping, like turning a dial on a radio. When he glanced across the table at Marie, for example: he could see the woman he loved, or he could shift frequencies and see the dress made in the U.K., the shoes made in China, the Italian leather handbag, or shift even further and see the Neptune-Avramidis shipping routes lit up on the map: the dress via Westbound Trans-Atlantic Route 3, the shoes via either the Trans-Pacific Eastbound 7 or the Shanghai–Los Angeles Eastbound Express, etc.
I don’t pretend to know how to unravel the problem of age prejudice (or any other prejudice), but the discussions are essential.
What I’m Up To
It was a privilege and a pleasure to present to the Mid-Cities HR Association. This Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) chapter serves HR professionals in North Texas and the Dallas/Fort Worth mid-cities area.
Using The Leader With A Thousand Faces as a guide, we discussed how leadership and effective communication has changed in the post-pandemic era.
Chips and Salsa: Bite-sized news and posts.
If you don’t delegate, you are not a leader.
LinkedIn Post - Fear of Delegation
Leaders make assumptions and predict the future.
LinkedIn Post - Leaders are always predicting the future
The next generation of EVs is rapidly approaching.
WIRED - A New Approach to Car Batteries
Interesting Engineering - Transparent Solar Panels
LinkedIn Post - Lithium Prices Putting EV Producers Under Pressure
Quotes
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.”
- Victor Hugo
The Leader With A Thousand Faces is available on Amazon.
My goal is to make this newsletter as interesting and valuable as possible. Please share your thoughts and suggestions for improvement. If there are specific topics in leadership you would like me to focus on in future issues, please send them my way.
