Take Your Top Down and Keep It Off

Picture this: Late afternoon on a tidy, suburban street. I was parked in front of my very own house staring aimlessly through the windshield at nothing in particular. My mind was on autopilot running through a string of dramatic scenarios when suddenly, a lanky boy confidently passed in front of my field of vision, breaking the spell. He stopped and turned around and we caught each other’s eye, I didn’t recognize him immediately, but then BAM, it hit me. This ‘boy’ was actually a man and he was none other than my own son.

I saw him standing there, self possessed and mature, and for the first time I realized that I could no longer order him to do anything just ‘because I said so’. Here was a man with his own ideas and a sense of autonomy and authority. I could no longer be the boss of him. In that instant, I realized that the power dynamic of our family structure had forever changed.

Yeah I probably planted the seeds of the concept when I read him Dr. Seuss’s ant-top down manifesto, “Yertle the Turtle” when he was small. I guess Generation Y has been fed that way of thinking from birth. But in the here and now I saw that If my family was going to run efficiently moving forward, I’d have to take my mama bear power and spread it all around. Our family would no longer be a dictatorship. From here onward, management would be a discussion and our family structure would rule from the center.

In a family, those at the bottom can rely on those at the top to take care of them and that’s why in this context, top down leadership works. But kids grow and develop their own voices and the confidence to let those voices be heard. Like in ‘Yertle the Turtle’. In the evolution of a family, children grow and become independent. And it’s at that point that top down management becomes obsolete in families.

In the corporate world today, layoffs are constantly a threat. The top simply cannot promise that it will take care of the bottom unconditionally. And so? Management too is moving away from top-down leadership; it has become unreliable, undesirable and totally out of fashion.

Today companies are tending towards management that respects the voice and experience of individual workers. It’s sometimes called “collaborative leadership”, and for it to work, companies must employ people who are passionate about what they do. Encouraging passion gives employees a voice. And having a voice that is valued makes an employee an asset to a company.

Ultimately when management hires creative, talented folks and gives them the freedom to work without a lot of top-down control, it’s proven that they will generally take initiative and work for the greater good of the company.

You, dear manager, are in a privileged position to use your vision in order to hire for balance and success. So hire wisely. Recognize that expertise can come from seasoned professionals and rookies alike. Today a successful workforce is one that spans generations, recognizes individual talents and celebrates autonomy.

Hiring wisely not only means recruiting those with passion and vision. It means recognizing toxic people and keeping them way the heck away from your business. It only takes one total jerk to ruin the whole dynamic of a company. No matter how seasoned a potential hire is, if he or she has total jerk potential, there’s only one thing to do: RUN.

Today, successful leaders must be facilitators who foster collaboration between the senior and junior members of a team. This type of collaboration empowers everyone. It works for companies. It works in my very own family. Take a tip from Yertle: Take your top down. And keep it off.