Of leaders who are not leaders: My thoughts

Have you ever received an email from a senior member in your workplace and realise that despite the attempt to mask it, the senior member was nasty to you? Also, you know that they think by sticking ‘have a good day’ at the bottom of the email, they think you are stupid and will not notice it. These types of leaders exist in our day-to-day lives. It could be at work or anywhere but know for sure that you are in trouble when you have such. They like to remind you that they are your leader and emphasize how important they are to the organization as if you are not. A very simple definition of an organisation says it is about people coming together for one purpose, business or whatever. Having said that, yes, there will be hierarchies for this organization to function well but it does not mean that those below a certain grade in the structure should be treated with disrespect.

What is leadership anyway? I will go for a simple definition. I am not writing an academic paper here.

Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal (Kevin Kruse). I find this definition simple and it encompasses what I want to say. It is not about saying to people ‘look I am intelligent, cleverer than you, the big man or woman of the company and there is you this little nothing member of the organisation’). Trust me some leaders exude these traits. In my 13 years of living in the UK, I have come face to face with leaders like these. It is as if they cannot help it. You rather want to say ‘we know you are, who are, do not rub it in my face’. However, why should it be like that? There is no need. How can one expect to influence the people they are belittling or mocking? It doesn’t work.

I remember a friend many years ago whose Senior Lead used to waltz in her subordinates’ office and moans about how she doesn’t understand why people get to the next day with no money. As far as she was concerned such people could only be stupid. My friend was like ‘wow’. There was a woman with money who didn’t know what it meant to be on a lower wage and struggling to make ends meet. She would do this every week on her way from lunch shopping. What sort of motivation would you get from that type of person?

I think if you are a leader, it doesn’t qualify you to use that privilege to bully and belittle subordinates.

Great leaders find the balance between business foresight, performance, and character. They have vision, courage, integrity, humility and focus along with the ability to plan strategically and catalyse cooperation amongst their team. They do not walk around puffing their chests to show that they run the show.

Please be Kind.

Which one of the protected characteristics is the most important: really? My reflections

I always like to write about issues most troubling me but I don’t always get the chance.  Trust me, managing work and other responsibilities can most definitely take one’s time.  On top of that, there is tiredness especially a week after the Christmas break. I just felt coming back to my special place where I can write about stuff that might be difficult to get the right audience in real life. Disclaimer: These are my views, experiences and observations and if they do not fit neatly in yours, then you can always read quietly, be polite in disagreeing with me or just do not bother reading.

So, here are the  areas of equality and diversity issues that I have been struggling with and meant to write about all along, black people who think because they happen to have made it to the top positions in organizations – all of a sudden, they are superior to the rest of the black people in the world. I am talking about black people in particular because I happen to be black and I am writing about this because I have come across these people and also heard from the people, I speak to about how annoying these people are. They are annoying mostly because they make others feel as if their lack of progression is a sign they are not as hardworking as them, they fit and you who doesn’t progress, you do not fit or are not trustworthy enough to get where they are. Anyway, maybe you are reading this and you are one of those people and you are thinking maybe I am jealousy – the answer is no, I am not.

Let me explain. In most cases, these people, before their promotion, they complain and moan about everything; the lack of opportunities to progress in the organisation, they mourn about the inequalities, they moan about everything and they still mourn until just before they get a promotion.  All of a sudden, they tell you, they do not see, have never experienced all the things they once mourned about, and all those complaining would just need to work hard and will just be fine. In fact, they make you feel like you are one of those black people always playing the race card. They make you feel like you are lazy. They do not even want to talk to you. When they see you walking towards them, they change the direction of where they are going. In meetings, they always have to disagree with you even when it’s obvious you are making a good point. It is as if you make them uncomfortable. At any events to do with equality, diversity and inclusion, they take the back seat or they do not show up.

I honestly do not understand. All I can think of is maybe they want to please so much that they do not remember how life was before becoming this new person. Anyway, food for thought! I rest my case.

I am not saying equality and diversity is a responsibility of one group of people, I am not saying it’s a black, white, brown and yellow issue but my beef is with those who change the narrative depending on where they are.

While I am at it let me talk about another issue:  people who are so passionate about their little box of inequality, they are the only ones suffering inequality because they are female, LGBT+, etc but they don’t believe there are problems as regards other protected characteristics like race for example.  They argue that because they have black or BME friends they think there is no racism in the UK. What I can only say is, its not a matter of comparing apples and mangoes when it comes to equality issues, and we can’t put on a scale all the types of inequalities and try and measure the most serious one. That would not work. Inequality in any form or shape is bad and let us not try to score points by suggesting that being black is better than being disabled or being gay is worse than ….. Discrimination sucks whichever type. There is no way we can know what it means to be a black person, a gay man, a disabled person etc unless we are that, so what gives us the right to compare them all and decide that being this is better than being that?

All I am saying is let’s treat people with dignity and respect not by their bodily or socially constructed characteristics!