Employees should have patience with their boss.

"Employees should have patience with the boss"

Many executives could be more effective, says psychologist Marion Lemper-Pychlau. But they waste their energy exercising power.

Zeit Online: Ms. Lemper-Pychlau, you say that many executives could be more effective than they are. How do you come to that conclusion? Marion Lemper-Pychlau: Practice shows that many employees and executives already fail at small challenges. They have not learned how to deal with certain situations, but act on the principle of trial and error. This takes time. And especially executives are not given more time. Many lack the freedom today to grow into their position. Leadership positions have become revolving doors. Under this pressure, however, bosses make mistakes. Many of these could be prevented if managers were given more time to unfold their potential. Zeit Online: What do you mean by that? Lemper-Pychlau: One key factor is, for example, self-confidence. A leader can only go as far as their self-confidence allows. However, healthy self-confidence is based, among other things, on the experience that even high goals can be achieved with courage and perseverance. Therefore, leaders should be allowed more often to test themselves in challenging situations. But this requires a tolerance for mistakes, which is usually not present. Another obstacle to effectiveness is that most people focus too much on the why and not on the how. We then use all our energy to understand obstacles instead of the possibilities. We ask ourselves, for example: Why does something like this always happen to me? Or: Why is no one helping me, why are my employees doing this? These questions create discouragement and block us. Zeit Online: What should one do instead? Lemper-Pychlau: Focus on the possibilities. Then the questions would be: How could I still achieve my goal? How can I organize support, how can the problem be solved best? With these questions, the situation is opened up and focused on a solution. This instills confidence - and one gains self-confidence. Zeit Online: Some people find this easier than others. Why? Lemper-Pychlau: This is certainly largely due to upbringing and experience. Charismatic people usually find it easier to achieve high goals. Due to their strong personality, they exude self-confidence. And their strong personality in turn is based on their self-confidence. Their words carry more weight in groups. They are taken seriously. In such a position, one can of course assert oneself more easily. However, as already described, many executives - even if they are actually charismatic types - are insecure because they are not given the time to test themselves in their leadership role. So they use formal power to assert themselves. But this is usually counterproductive. Exercising power makes communication on an equal footing more difficult. Such leadership style rather requires employees to either fight against it, withdraw from it, or resign. This means that employees direct their energy towards these avoidance strategies against the boss, instead of throwing themselves wholeheartedly into their work. In the end, everyone is much less effective than they could be. Zeit Online: Many executives know what matters. Why do they still fail? Lemper-Pychlau: There is a gap between understanding and implementation. Our brain takes a while to internalize something. It takes time and practice until newly learned things are integrated into everyday life. In times of stress, one quickly reverts to old patterns. It takes some effort to reach the point where one reacts unconsciously with the new behavior. For many people, this is simply too strenuous, and they give up too quickly. Zeit Online: What should a leader do then? Lemper-Pychlau: I am deeply convinced that leaders must work on themselves to a special degree. This effort has many aspects. Ultimately, it is about increasing personal effectiveness, for example in direct contact with employees. This often places very high demands. For example, good leadership requires that the boss keeps an eye on their employees and sees what concerns them and what they need. On the other hand, a superior cannot only be understanding and empathetic, but must also give instructions, demand performance, or make tough decisions. However, the larger a team is, the more difficult it becomes to lead successfully. Some people break under this pressure, lacking the strength to meet these conflicting demands permanently. In my opinion, employees should be much more patient with their leaders here. Zeit Online: But employees are not better off. They often have too many tasks to complete in too little time. Lemper-Pychlau: It is true, on the one hand, many companies constantly demand top performance from their employees. On the other hand, many workers have not learned to manage themselves. And although many operate at the edge of their capabilities, they are still obedient. If the employees of a company were to collectively resist unreasonable workloads or poor working conditions, something would change. However, workers' representations and unions have become weaker in recent decades, employment relationships more fragile and insecure. The strikes in many sectors in recent months show that something is changing again. However, I believe that many employees bring a fundamental obedience and prefer to submit rather than rebel against the company management.