Have you learned how to take orders?
In top-down organizations, leaders work with “the stick.”
The “stick” relies on the largest threat: “you’re fired.”
“You’re fired” means that a worker has to decide if the leader has enough authority to tell them what to do, as well as learning if the leader can actually fire them.
These decisions mean that it comes with mental overhead. If you, as a worker, have to think, “Will this get me fired?” You aren’t as effective.
This style has a point,though if you lead. If compliance means more than creativity, which is true at most gigantic organizations, it works.
Taking that style anywhere else, however, relies on a situation or the environment.
The bad news, if you depend on that style to lead, is that those situations rarely occur naturally.
What other method exists?
We can learn how to execute for others.
We love completion and root for finishers. So, execute and build confidence.
As a result, gaining that confidence allows them to believe that you lead effectively. That trust means people listen, and once they listen, they follow. Furthermore, your confidence creates authority.
Those who often execute by example become the ones who lead by it.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 