Us humans have been raging against the power for quite a while now.
For very good reasons.
Those who get power can pretty easily lose the plot.
Power goes to our heads.
Whether you get it by luck, fate or hard work, power is intended for the good of the group.
But when we get power, it changes our state of mind.
Getting drunk on power, while it might be a cliche, is pretty normal.
It is shockingly easy to start confusing your own self-interest with the interests of the group.
(Read Julie Diamond’s Power: A User’s Guide for an essential take for how to navigate this process and maintain your integrity.)
Problem is, when power doesn’t get used for the good of the group, rebellion is inevitable.
rebellion becomes revolution becomes more of the same
Tossing out the boss makes sense, but the risk of just replacing one tyrant with another is pretty high (think French Revolution).
The organizational psychologist Henry Cloud writes about two really useful roles that the boss carries for a group:
- Directing attention to what is important (focus)
Protecting from irrelevant or harmful distractions (exclusion) - By enacting these roles, a boss can create the conditions for people to function at their best.
A good boss supports the group to achieve healthy, joyful teamwork.
So while tossing out the boss is tempting, the deeper work is to transform the harmful side effects of the boss role.
Tossing out the boss aka tossing out arbitrary and corrupt use of power?
Great.
Tossing out the helpful functions of leadership authority?
Not so great.
transforming the boss
I recently had a fight with some colleagues I respect, about the words ‘management’ and ‘governance.’
They are bad words, they said. Don’t use them.
Fair enough. Management was, after all, originally invented to extract more profit (“productivity”) from an industrial working class.
I get it. Historically and in some worlds, management equals top-down control.
And governance sounds a lot like being controlled.
This view that management=controlling authority=bad is very persistent because it isn’t untrue.
But it creates the conditions for a dead-end double-bind.
No-one tells me what to do (BUT) someone should create safety around here.
How many times have you seen this double-bind play out around you?
Leaders are accused of not protecting people from harms.
And simultaneously accused of yielding too much power.
At some point, the role that says ’no-one tells me what to do’ and the role that says ‘someone should create safety around here’ have to interact and find their teamwork.
But what if the role of the manager, of the boss, was to create a ‘container of support’ for the team to function? This is a new wave, post-liberatory, version of the boss role.
From that perspective, we know and embody management as a necessary, supportive function that enables people in organizations to succeed and avoid burn out. While governance is the tool for transparency, integrity and collective involvement in a larger organization.
Perhaps this is a generational change, one of the ripple effects of the movements for collective liberation.
Truth is, without the helpful functions of the boss (focus and exclusion), it is basically impossible to create the conditions for safety and functional, enjoyable teamwork.
If we get stuck tossing out the boss (no-one tells me what to do) then power cannot function for the good of the whole.
Unifying leadership is impossible.
No-one feels seen or valued except in polarized sub-groups.
Literally no-one is home to create safety or to allow people to be seen.
Our world is dangerously cycling around this stuckness, creating terrifying, suicidal and murderous damage.
I’m not saying that centralizing control in an individual is the way to go.
Far from it.
Because if anything drives us to toss out the boss, it is going in that direction.
Yet we can see the temptation and resurgence of authoritarian leadership all around us.
Authoritarianism creates a false equivalence of the person and their hierarchical position. The Leader is above the law. The Leader can do no wrong.
We don’t even need history to see where that goes.
Instead of tossing out the boss, let’s toss out the idea that being higher in an organizational hierarchy has anything to do with your value as a human being.
Let’s remember that the boss serves the group.
That power is of and for the whole.
That when we accept the necessary role of the boss, we co-create the conditions for safety and effective, satisfying teamwork.
And keep our eyes wide open.
obviously not a new idea
This is obviously not a new idea.
Democracy rather than monarchy.
But, turns out, democracy is a difficult idea to embody. We have to work at it.
And tossing out the boss is not the solution.
Because the one I know for sure?
It is going to take all of us.
Three of my favorite books on this topic
Parker, Priya. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. Penguin Publishing Group. (2020)
Diamond, Julie. Power: A User’s Guide. Belly Song Press. (2016)
Cloud, Henry. Boundaries for Leaders: Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously In Charge. HarperCollins. (2013)