Lessons - Why Command & Control Is Dead | Stephen M.R. Covey - Speed of Trust Author

In this lessons episode, explore why leadership is moving beyond command and control in today's workplace. Discover why trust, without inspiration limits performance, understand how purpose-driven leadership fuels deeper engagement, and uncover how inspired cultures unlock higher commitment and lasting impact. I think that what you're trying to solve for are the most difficult things to solve for in leadership. And if we look at one of the points that you make, you can better unpass podcasts in your book as well, we're migrating from this traditional command and control model, which actually, it's unfortunate, but when you're in a command and control model, you don't actually need a ton of trust because people are just, you say, do this and they say yes, and you say do that, they say yes. So there may be internally they don't trust your decisions, but ultimately they're still going to do what you're telling them to do, which is not again, this is not a sustainable business model, we see it more and more. So if we look at the future of, well, first I'd actually just like to get your opinion on where leadership actually lies right now to date in 2022, what are the observations that you see about businesses? Do you still see businesses trying to succeed with a traditional command and control model? Or do you see that being a business strategy and a leadership strategy that is going away very quickly? Both. It's still in spite of all our progress. We're still trapped a bit in the old command and control model. We've become better at it, though, more sophisticated, more advanced. I call it enlightened command and control. So it's a lot better version of it, but still we're deeply scripted in our mindset and our paradigm that we too often still treat people like things, just a more sophisticated advanced enlightened version of it. So I call enlightened command and control. And the data shows it's still about 9 out of 10 organizations are still in some version of enlightened command and control or some version of command and control. But to your point and you reference this, they're recognizing that it's not working anymore. And it's certainly not going to work with this new generation of workers of, you know, Gen Z. And it's not working very well with millennials and that this new world of work requires a new way to lead. And the old model, the old command and control, isn't going to work. That, like you said, that's operating on unfier and on position. And you know what? People have choices and options today. And people want a sense of meaning and purpose and contribution. One, they want to matter. People want to be trusted. They want to be inspired. And the old model, even the enlightened version of it to command and control, doesn't inspire. You don't build high-trust cultures that inspire people through command and control. You can't collaborate and innovate through command and control. So we need a new way to lead in the new world. And I call it trust and inspire. And so I think that is the future leadership. I think we are moving from command and control to trust and inspire. And we're in that process of moving. And I think we're further along in our, in what we're saying and in what we're doing. We're saying we need to move to the equivalent of trust and inspire. But our practices and our systems and our structures are still too much caught in the old model of command and control. But we're recognizing, for the first time, this does not work very well. And it hasn't for some time. And we need to shift. So we need to become equally clear, not only where we're moving from command and control, but where we're moving toward. I'm calling it trust and inspire. You model, you trust, you inspire. That is the new way to lead in our new world. It's what Sachin Adela has done at Microsoft. He came in and instilled a growth mindset. He modeled, he trusted, he inspired. And they call it modeling coaching, caring. And they moved, they really revitalized the organization at a time when they still were big, but they were becoming less relevant, less innovative, less impactful, and revitalized the organization through his leadership style. You know what, Cheryl Batchelder did at Popeyes. It's completely revitalized the organization through leadership style, unleashing the greatness, the potential inside of people, through the style of leadership, the saw the greatness, inside of people, and unleashed it. And that's the kind of leadership that's needed today. And that's where we're going, it's where we need to go. But you know what, we're still in that process of getting there. And we need examples, models, and mentors of leaders that can help us do this. And we need to become those kind of leaders to help us get there. It's interesting, because I think that you actually unlock something that's very important. You don't just have a high trust culture, because a high trust culture is great. That means that you trust people to do the thing that's going to move the business in the right direction. But if those people aren't inspired, you can trust them all day long. And then they're probably not going to be doing the thing that's going to actually get the business to the next level. If they don't feel inspired, they don't feel some purpose for what their work is. They're never going to be giving the 110% that you would need from that person, and that you would try and get them in a command and control. So if people just think I'm going to trust, I'm going to trust it. Everybody does the right thing. But you have people that are completely disenchanted with the actual thought of showing up every single day and doing the thing that they're going to do, the trust model falls flat. So it can't just be trust alone because trust alone people are going to be like, well, he trusts, she trusts me to do whatever I want to do. I'm going to apply for another job in my free time because I don't like my work. I'm going to start a side hustle that's going to take up most of my day because I don't really care about what I'm doing in my nine to five. So you have to have the inspiration. But that's such a difficult thing to wrap your mind around. Like, how do I? Because you always say that, oh, you want all your employees to feel like they're owners. I mean, you can give out some equity, you can maybe give them some options. But like, it's very difficult to inspire somebody at the same level as the founder, CEO, people that own the business. So how do you do this? How do you actually do this? Yeah, well, I love how you framed it, Scott, because you're exactly right that the high-trust culture is half of it. The high-trust culture that inspires, that inspiration is the other half. And you need both halves in our world today to differentiate, to make a difference, to be the kind of organization in place where people feel like they can, where they're trusted and the work they do matters and makes a difference. And they want to make a difference. And so how do you inspire? Well, first of all, let me say this, that I think you've identified, you know, to use the Wayne Gratsky metaphor, where he was asked, what makes you so great at hockey? And he says, I skate to where the puck is going to be. Not to where it's been, but to where it's going to be. I think in leadership, the puck, so to speak, where things are going is towards inspiration. Inspiration. And I think inspiration is actually the new engagement, the next frontier of engagement. We've been focused on engagement for the last 20 years. And it's a good thing. I'm not going to downplay engagement. It's vital to engage people so that they have that discretionary effort that they're giving. That's a good thing. We need to continue to move towards engagement. But I think there's another frontier, another level that's inspiration, even beyond engagement. And there's actually a study from Bain & Company that shows that inspired employees are yes, 125% more productive than merely satisfied employees. Now you might expect that, you know, if satisfied is not enough, but they're even 56% more productive than engaged employees. So another frontier level that we can reach when people feel inspired and inspiration to inspire comes from the Latin term inspirari. It means to breathe life into. So you breathe life into relationships into teams and organizations into culture. You light the fire that's within people. It's internal, it's intrinsic. It's inside of them. So motivation is external is extrinsic. So you motivate people with care and stick. That's that can come out of command and control. And it's not a bad thing per se. It's just that you're trying to move people through carrots through sticks to try to move people to do things. Inspiration is internal. It's intrinsic. It's inside of people. You're trying to light the fire within and let that fire burn. And you know, there's a need constant new incentives, new stimuli thrown at it. It can live on. And if you can ignite that fire that's inside of people, that can burn on for years. And that's a higher level that we're trying to achieve to tap into the desire for purpose, for meaning, for contribution. I think that's where things are going towards inspiration to be inspired. Had that fire lit within. I'll give you an example of this. I was, I went in worked with the Pepperdine University, beautiful university in Southern California. And here's their, I worked with Jim Gash, their president and their cabinet and their team. Listen to the school of business there, the Graziato School of Business. They establish a purpose that people really feel a sense of connection to that inspires them. And they, and they freight it this way that our purpose is not to develop leaders who are best in the world. Our purpose is to develop leaders who are best for the world. You know, best for the world leaders. Now to be best for the world, you got to also be pretty good in the world too. You know, you see, you know, so it's not saying it's not either or it's an end, but the overarching purpose is contribution to make a difference to matter best for the world leaders. And imagine what that does to inspire the professors, the faculty, the staff, the janitor, anyone working there feels like I'm part of developing best for the world leaders. And in tapping to that sense of purpose, meaning and contribution, that's what we want to do. So that, you know, tapping into that that sense of purpose matters. But I think it's even possible to inspire people when we do it through caring as a leader that you care, you connect with people through caring in a sense of belonging as well as connecting people to purpose, meaning and contribution. So it can be grand in the sense of there's purpose, meaning and contribution, but it also can be micro in the sense of my immediate supervisor, my colleague, my peer, they care about me. I feel this sense of caring and that inspires me. I feel a sense of belonging and that inspires me and every one of us as leaders can do that. Everyone can inspire. It's a learnable skill through a sense of caring and purpose as well as connecting people, excuse me, a sense of caring and belonging as well as connecting people to purpose and a meaning. That's the idea. It's learnable. It's not just for the charismatic. Everyone can inspire. It's a learnable skill. Yeah, I was going to say it's, you know, like sometimes some of the points that you're bringing up, it's not just for a leader who is a charismatic evangelical first class on stage public speaker. When you're talk, the things that you're talking about, if we unpack them a set further, there's sort of two things that I pulled out from that. So you have an organization that has clear purpose, mission, culture, and they actually focus focus on making sure that the the mission statement on the website is more than just the mission statement on the website is something that the whole company believes in buys into maybe even adds into. But then you also have at a leadership level and individual level, you have people that are just being very high EQ empathetic individuals caring for each other. So it's something that permeates all the way throughout the entire organization. And that's what I guess you're saying when somebody's living and breathing that every single day, that's what actually gets them to go the whatever the 125% or whatever that number was. Yeah. Is that correct? Okay. Absolutely. That's it. It's that simple and that difficult. Yes. But I love, you know, your point is this is not just for the charismatic. I think too often we've equated inspiration with charisma thinking you got to be this charismatic soul to inspire people. But think about it. Scott, I bet you're like me. I and I bet our listeners and viewers feel the same. I know people, some people who are very charismatic, but who aren't necessarily inspiring because it's all about them. And you know, they might be charismatic, but I don't know if that inspires me. I know other people who no one would necessarily describe as charismatic, but who are extremely inspiring because of who they are, how they care, how they connect, how what they do matters. So let's separate charisma and inspiration. And everyone can inspire. And you named it. You inspire when you connect with people through caring, through a sense belonging. And then you inspire when you connect people to purpose, to meaning and to contribution like Pepperdine University is doing and others are doing. And we can learn to do that as leaders in both fronts. And if all you do is a leader, if all you do is focus on caring for others, caring for people, caring for those that you're served, empathy, compassion, showing that, that actually will inspire them when they sense that you care for them. And I like how Maya Angelou put it, the great poet, Solar Wright's advocate champion. She said people, I've learned that people will forget what you say, they'll even forget what you do, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. And when you have a sense of caring that people feel, in a sense of belonging, that inspires like almost nothing else. And that will move the needle. And we can learn to do that. To watch the full episode, see you in the next one.