From Fear to Freedom – Do We Dare?

Vandaag een blog van onze collega Louise Gerritsma. Louise vindt het prettiger om in het engels te schrijven en wij vinden dat ook prettig omdat de site daarmee voor meer mensen toegankelijk wordt. Je zult vanaf nu dus zowel engels geschreven als nederlands geschreven blogs aantreffen.

From Fear to Freedom – Do We Dare?
Last Tuesday after a stimulating day of training, I had the privilege of taking a very slow train back direction my home. Yes, the freezing weather and relentless snow gives us commuters a lot to complain about, but if there's one thing that I've learned, it is that hidden in every problem or frustration, is usually a very beautiful opportunity.
So it happened that a friendly young man came sitting across from me in the empty train and we struck up a conversation. He had been working at a wine shop, his part-time job, that day and was on his way home. After making some small talk, he shared that he was a university student doing a Bachelor's degree in Management. My ears perked up – I couldn't resist asking: 'Do you also spend time learning about leadership and what good leadership entails?' 'Yes', he said. Upon further probing, he basically came to the following conclusion about what he had learned:
1. A good leader knows what he wants others to do and is able to effectively communicate that.
2. A good leader is strict in ensuring compliance with given policies and procedures.
3. A good leader rewards good behaviour (and punishes or withholds reward upon non-compliance), thereby ensuring continued good behaviour.

Quite shocked and not surprised
I was, to be honest, on the one hand quite shocked at his answer, and on the other hand not surprised at all. After living here now for almost one and a half years, I have discovered that Dutch corporate culture is to a large extent (still) very Calvinistic at its core, largely characterised by:
1. A fairly set and generally agreed (often not questioned) standard of behaviour (i.e. societal norms).
2. High emphasis on compliance against those norms.
3. Behaviour based reward (and punitive) systems, ensuring future continued compliance with the set norms.
Underlying the societal norms are then some very fundamental societal values, which renowned spiritual writer Henri Nouwen has so accurately identified as follows, and which to my surprise exactly match with the three points mentioned by my student friend on the train:
1. We value (and therefore are) what we do (i.e. followers of societal norms).
2. We value (and therefore are) what others think and say about us (i.e. compliant citizens and employees).
3. We value (and therefore are) what we have (i.e. recipients of rewards – or punishment – for our behaviour in whatever form (remuneration, benefits, bonuses, fines, salary cuts, etc.)).

How is that working for you?
What concerns me about this very stable foundation that has supported much of Western corporate culture in the past, is that I find myself so tempted to ask anyone recognising him-/herself as a product and participant in this system: ‘How is that working for you?’
Why? Because I cannot help but wonder where in this picture is there any room left for the individual? For his/her potential, unique talents, passion, motivation and capacity to problem-solve?  How have these elements so crucial to our very sense of purpose and existence – to our authenticity as individuals – become so frequently ignored in our working lives (where we tend to spend most of our waking hours), so that so many people I speak to only dare to seek it in their private lives?

Expectancy vs expectations
We live one life. Surely these times of so-called crisis we are living in, call for a different approach? So-called, because as I said before, every problem in life usually masks a beautiful opportunity – to shake off this transactional, fear-based way of interacting and choose for a more transformational, freedom-inspired way. This reminds me of an insightful book I read a while ago, ‘The Shack’(by William P. Young) –it is not a book on leadership or organisational change by any means, however it does propose a powerful alternative to the way in which we typically interact in our transactional life model. Applying this to leadership in organisations, we are conditioned to function by means of expectations (leader to employee) and responsibilities (employee to leader). However, could we as leaders in organisations dare to replace those expectations with a curious and excited expectancy, and allow our employees to replace the heavy burden of responsibility with an ability to respond?

People who come alive
I recently suggested this to a group of soon-to-be-qualified management trainees in a session over the power of coaching leadership. We were discussing the value of allowing and encouraging authenticity in leader-follower interactions.  Something about this new way of thinking struck a chord with the group – their faces lit up and a new energy seemed to enter the room. I think this is not without reason. Every one of us want to feel recognised for who we are, and encouraged to be our authentic selves. I challenge every leader reading this to consider giving yourself and your employees the gift of your expectancy and have faith in their ability to respond. I believe we will travel much lighter through this crisis, come up with much better ideas and creative solutions for overcoming it, and feel so much more alive – to quote Howard Thurman: “Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”