Punished by Rewards - Power LO14586

James Bullock (jbullock@pipeline.com)
Wed, 30 Jul 1997 20:17:37 -0400

Reply to LO14483

"What would cause a leader to give up the power that a reward system such
as merit pay gives him/her?"

Depends on the definition of power. If power is the ability to force one's
will over the opposition of another's will, then there is little in
Kohen's book on gaining power.

There are some other definitions by which "power" isn't given up by
dispensing with rewards.

- Ability to achieve one's aims when they are too large to achieve
individually.
- Contribution to the growth of the individuals around one.
- Good things happening at minimal human cost (benefit/cost, not benefit
no matter the cost.)
- Peace
- Congruent behavior (stealing from Gerry Weinberg.)
- Effectiveness

There are no doubt more.

It is my considered opinion that "leadership" positions in
Taylor-structured, capital funded organizations appeal to that which is
weakest in us. The desire to be in charge. The need to enforce one's will.
Position, power, and ownership. Allocating "resources" because one (in a
one-up position) "knows better" than they do. Infantalizing people, and
making essentially beg for the priveledge. It's an extreme expression of
the basic sick-ness of organizational behavior. The Sickest fit the org
model best, and get deserved promotions. (I'm not claiming organizations
are bad, but that a particular kind promotes and rewards essentially sick
behavior. There has got to be a better way.)

I'm not advocating an organizational free-for-all. Nor am I suggesting
absence of standards, or allowing failed performance. (Ask anyone I've
worked with.) I am suggesting that this can be done on a mutually
understood, negotiated basis, as if all concerned were full-grown
human-beings with autonomy and rights.

I believe I get as big a thrill as any other garden-variety megalomaniac
out of enforcing my will, but it's a high-overhead way to get thing done
when dealing with people, so I take it out on the inanimate world. I build
things, where things didn't exist before. It's a bigger challenge anyway
(most people can be ground down with sheer energy, and persistance. The
facts of the world, gravity and such, have to be met on their own terms.)

There's power when one can enlist the commitment of a respected other in a
vision, which we then can work together to make real. Bringing such a
thing to another is quite a gift, and a priveledge. Trouble is, the vision
must be worthy of the commitment, so there's no place for "gotcha" games
of false enlistment.

Perhaps the good, "true" leaders are prophets, compelled by a vision, not
autocrats.

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