Transcriber: Leonardo Silva Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
I love Sundays.
It's a time when I actually get a chance to smell a cup of coffee -
hazelnut is my favorite.
I go on long bike rides with my friends,
and I spend the afternoon hanging out with my family.
But there was a time when I hated Sundays.
In fact, I would stay in bed as late as I could
in hopes it would delay the upcoming Monday.
Granted, with five dogs, the demands that they have,
I wouldn't be able to stay in bed long.
But when I did get up,
and throughout the day I would experience a loss of appetite, high anxiety
when I even thought about the upcoming workweek.
You see, I felt like I worked in a combat zone,
where I would literally experience verbal abuse,
and I would see my colleagues leave the manager's office in tears.
And I witnessed spiteful gossip
that just tore apart the morale in the workplace,
when all I desired was to be valued and appreciated for my contributions.
Ladies and gentlemen, this was my life working for destructive leaders
early in my professional career.
Now, many of us have probably worked
for constructive and/or destructive leaders in our careers.
We can probably agree that someone who is constructive,
they inspire, they have integrity,
they're ethical
and they empower followers.
Contrary to that is your destructive leaders.
Let's put this into context.
This is not somebody who's had an occasional bad day,
because I'm sure we've all had those.
But this is someone who demonstrates destructive behaviors
that are purposefully meant
to harm the organization and employees for their own personal gain.
These individuals are called workplace bullies or abusive supervisors
because they belittle, they manipulate, micromanage,
use coercion and condescension
to intimidate and control their employees.
If you think about it,
bullying's become so pervasive in our educational system
there are now campaigns and laws to protect the victims.
So why is it not taken this serious in our workplace today?
Shockingly,
destructive leaders will victimize 40 to 50% of the workforce,
and in doing so, they're going to cost US corporations
in the upwards of $25 billion annually.
This is because of legal fees, high turnover,
absenteeism and high medical claims
from employees who are experiencing extreme anxiety,
high levels of stress and depression
because they worked in a toxic work environment.
Come on, folks. We should be outraged by these statistics.
I am and I was,
so I was inspired to do research,
and I conducted a study where I interviewed millennials
who've worked for destructive leaders in their careers.
And listening to their stories during the interviews,
you can hear the pain in which they talked about how they were called names
and ridiculed by their managers.
Their managers actually told them that they needed to be controlled -
teams that resembled functioning alcoholics,
fistfights that went on during team meetings,
some who lied out of fear but only became a comedy of errors,
and then some who lost professional credibility.
This generation of followers is greatly impacted
by destructive leaders.
And in our society, we are inundated with news of leaders who are unethical,
who lie, steal and cheat,
with little to no consequences for their behaviors.
This was confronted in my study
where the destructive leaders who adversely impacted the followers
were not punished for their behavior,
but surprisingly they were promoted
because upper management only considered the results,
with disregard for the means.
Most often, employees will leave an organization
that does not address the destructive behavior.
They find the names and faces do change the new organizations,
but sadly, over time, they find the destructive behaviors still exist.
Leaders are not successful on their own,
and according to Padilla, Hogan and Keyser,
who are some accomplished researchers in this space,
they found that destructive leaders in particular are successful
when the organization and followers enable their behaviors.
I'm intrigued by our society,
where we make excuses for destructive behaviors.
We've heard these stories because they've become common in our workforce
where "That guy, Johnny, he has a temper.
That's just the way he is,"
or "Suzy, she's very condescending, but don't take it personal. Come on!"
Research does state that those who are abused
will most likely become an abuser in the future.
But I'm of the mindset that we actually have a choice in the matter.
And as somebody who's worked for destructive leaders,
I made a decision not to become the product of my environment,
but I chose to be a constructive leader and a courageous follower in my career.
Now, we can probably agree
that the field of leadership is a billion-dollar industry, right?
Think about it.
We are reading books or taking seminars and classes on how to become leaders,
but I believe we've missed one vital step in this process.
To teach somebody to be a leader before you teach them how to be a follower
is no different than expecting somebody to run before they can walk.
I witnessed this firsthand on a trip to Peru
where I was teaching a team-building class to business professionals,
college students, universities and small communities.
The organization that sponsored this trip
had developed a relationship with a group of underprivileged women
who were being taught how to be leaders in their communities.
And they were very successful as individuals,
and they wanted to start a bakery together.
But in doing so, they were failing miserably,
and they didn't understand why.
As I observed their disagreements, it was always over the leadership position
because in their culture, a follower was considered insignificant.
They didn't understand the vital role of being a follower
in a team effort.
It was through continued team-building exercises
and followership training
that helped them understand the role of the follower.
And they were successful - today in as far as a bakery.
I share this story to demonstrate that, as a society,
we have not prepared our future generation of leaders
because we neglected to teach them how to be great followers.
I understand there's this stigma
that someone who's a follower is passive and subservient,
and they're not ever going to make a good leader.
But according to Ira Chaleff,
there are two key facts to remember about followership.
One:
it is a role, and not someone's personality.
Two:
the follower's not there to serve the leader,
but they're both there to serve a common purpose.
Research and education on followership is quite nascent,
considering the many years we've studied leadership.
And we've studied some great leaders, who've also been great followers -
for instance:
Aristotle, Thomas Jefferson, Indra Nooyi, Mary Barra and Tim Cook.
By 2018, 40% of the workforce will be the millennial generation,
and we have not prepared them to be active and courageous followers in their careers.
What is a courageous follower?
According to Chaleff,
a courageous follower is somebody who has the courage to serve,
to challenge,
participate in transformation,
take moral action,
and the courage to speak up to leadership.
Ladies and gentleman, I have three challenges for you today.
The first challenge is to become educated
and understand the types of destructive behaviors
and decide how those are going to be addressed
within your organizations today.
The high turnover of employees is costing more in the long term
than to remove that destructive leader.
Think about it.
I find it hard to believe that anybody in this audience today
would be excited to work for a bully every day.
The second challenge goes out to the millennials in the audience.
Do you want to be the generation
that makes a positive significant impact in our society today?
I challenge you to take responsibility in your role as a follower,
and be a great follower who will in turn be a great leader.
And in doing so, we will minimize the number of destructive leaders
in our society today.
And my final challenge goes out to those
who are currently serving as leaders in organizations.
It is time to take followership seriously
and to educate people on how to be successful in this role.
Today, the Naval Academy, Microsoft, Google and many Ivy League schools
are doing just that.
They're educating employees and students on followership.
So I ask: why does your organization not embrace followership today?
Thank you.
(Applause)