What is the role of a boss? What if less bossing resulted in increased productivity?
Most bosses will tell you that they want to overcome obstacles, but what if I told you that the boss can be one of the biggest obstacles? The boss’s role, at its core, is to make it easier for the team to do its work and be successful. Sadly, most bosses are more concerned about advancing themselves, protecting their interests, and hitting arbitrary (and often counterproductive) metrics, so the last thing they consider is how to help their team members except when it reflects well on them. Worse still, it is pretty rare that they even know how to help. Mostly such bosses are just in the way. So imagine a situation where a boss had proof positive that their pet routines, including meetings, were largely unnecessary and even destructive. You would expect a change, right?
Now for a true story. I am going to muddy up some of the more sordid and seemingly implausible—yet true—details. Suffice it to say, however absurd you find this situation, it was far, far worse.
Here’s the scene: a small university where the deans had to regularly work around their boss, the provost. The provost had a favorite dean who had a massive and growing influence over him. Suddenly one day, he and his favorite pulled a vanishing act for the ages. It turns out there was a cheating scandal in the dean’s school, and, instead of facing repercussions for her dereliction, she was portrayed as both the victim and the hero of that narrative. Subsequently, she and the provost embroiled themselves in a top-secret investigation that became more scandalous than the cheating incident itself. Every day all day, the two of them hunkered down in her office, sometimes with teams of expensive lawyers, to ferret out every potential cheater. Rumors flew. Meanwhile, these two micromanagers largely suspended their other work. Their clandestine investigation lasted four months, stretching across two semesters, a period I call “the Siege.”
During the Siege, the weekly two-hour Deans’ Council meetings were suspended as were each dean’s one-on-one meetings with the provost. At the same time the university’s president, instead of intervening, just left all the deans on their own. Emails went unanswered. Phone calls and texts were ignored. Worse still, because of all the cloak-and-dagger drama, there was no inkling of when or even if the Siege would end.
While The Boss Is Away, The Deans Make Headway
What happened? You might assume chaos, right? Nope. Without the usual barrage of pointless and disheartening meetings and constant interference from the provost, things ran better than ever. I call this phenomenon “the paradox of lack.” In the absence of the boss, all flourished. Ironically, the provost himself had a favorite phrase for when removing someone resulted in overall improvement. He called it “addition by subtraction,” and he proved to be its living exemplar.
Why would this be? Why would his absence foster growth? Well, the provost was a control freak by nature and even more so when under the influence of his favorite dean. He was also risk adverse to the point of timidity. But during the Siege, projects that had sat unrealized suddenly gained traction. In his absence, there was no danger of second-guessing, no doubts or delays, no sudden changes in direction, and the normal state of intense anxiety waned.
You can guess what happened when the provost and his favorite eventually reemerged from their legal liaison and the Siege lifted. A wise boss would have taken a look around to assess and wonder at the new reality of thriving productivity. Instead the provost—now squarely under the influence of his favorite—just snapped everyone and everything back to the same old same old. If anything, it grew even worse. His need for control had increased, plus cruelty became the norm, complete with heightened drama, gaslighting, macho bluster, and loud bullying. As I always say, “there’s a special place in hell for bosses who yell.”
Why am I digging into this sad tale of lessons not learned, you might ask? Because it illustrates a bitter truth: bosses, who are supposed to supply solutions, are often the very crux of the problem. They fuel what I’ve termed BCD—bureaucratic compulsive disorder—the mindless adherence to illogical rules that stifle progress. Many times, they themselves conjured up those damaging rules that they then pretend are ironclad instead of arbitrary.
So, bosses, pay heed and accept this challenge. Take a moment for introspection. Make a list of the difficulties your team grapples with daily. Now, be honest. How much of that can be traced back to your actions or inactions? It’s tough to face the truth, but recall that more often than not the boss is a big part of the problem and rarely part of the solution. On the other hand, the more you intentionally focus on shifting your mindset as a boss from trying to get others to do everything toward trying to make everything easier for them to do, the closer you are to genuine leadership.
Remember, boss is a just title. So is provost, dean, president, manager, director, and CEO. Leadership, though, is a matter of behavior and attitude. It’s a choice, and an all-encompassing one at that.
Here’s another challenge. Put yourself into the shoes of the provost in my story. Imagine that you too had unequivocal, empirical evidence that all your favorite systems and routines were, in fact, counterproductive. That the tools you felt were crucial to success proved to be more detrimental than beneficial. What would you do? Would you, like the provost, just ignore the reality in front of you and impose a non-reality of your manufacture, or would you have the wisdom, the foresight, and the mettle to make appropriate changes?
The Siege provides us with a perfect example of the paradox of lack: when the controls are relinquished and the team has autonomy, more work gets done, less time is wasted, and ideas advance.
Remember, it’s not about merely being a boss—it’s about embodying the traits of a leader without the constraints of a hierarchical title. Now pretend you were the deans in my story. How would you like to see things proceed? Would you want all the routines and activities that had been abandoned during the Siege reinstated when it lifted, or would you reassess their efficacy? Maybe it’s time to abandon those outdated systems and habits we all hold dear and embark on the path of genuine leadership. After all, if we want to be successful in anything, there is only one winning formula: far fewer bosses in the way and more actually leaders to clear that way!
How often have you seen the paradox of lack in action? What were the results?
Leaders must learn to constantly gage their effect on their people and make adjustments accordingly, and I can help.
If you want to excel as a great leader in this world of bad bosses, visit GuidanceForGreatness.com.
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The Paradox of Lack: What Happens When Subtraction Fosters Growth