Page 13 - index

We need secure and confdent leaders who have a clear

sense of their own identity and evolving expertise, know

how to work with others, and embrace disruption and crises

as opportunities to move their organizations forward.

behavioral terms describing the emerging culture which are ofen catastrophic. Not only does performance and morale
compelling enough to pull the organization forward into new disintegrate, but so does the team members’ self-valuing within
structures and processes that can support the emergence of a and beyond the organization (Rose et al., 2015).
new culture (Schein, 2010). Te gains must be embedded and Successful startups, like Heroku, have zero tolerance for any
moved through the DNA of the organization. Additionally, manager or supervisor who does not consistently serve, resource,
there must be people who are tasked with the responsibility of and recognize the strong value and contribution of every single
maintaining the development of the emerging culture. team member. Senior leaders in these organizations believe so
Heroku, founded in 2007 (purchased by Salesforce in 2010) strongly in their product and the people who drive that product
and based in San Francisco, is a cloud application platform that they cultivate and protect an empowering culture and place
which provides ways to build and deploy web apps. In order to people in positions of management who value human beings and
ensure that Heroku’s culture was experienced throughout the their creative capacity.
company, senior leaders began to hire “Vibe Managers.” Te
responsibility of the Vibe Manager was to ensure that Heroku’s Practice 4: Set Your People Free
culture was a daily experience up, down, and across the One of the reasons many start-ups successfully mature into
company. Brandon Carter Meixel, hired in 2012, was the fourth larger organizations is that they understand both the importance
Vibe Manager at Heroku. As Brandon put it, his responsibility of constant innovation and the source of that innovation (Hill
was to make sure that Heroku was a great place to work that et al., 2014). Te organizational environments where people
attracted and retained talent from all over the world. “Our team are strongly encouraged to engage in collaboration and the
strived to ensure that we retained talent by taking good care of creative exploration of new ways to accomplish work have what
our employees and keeping everyone aligned with Heroku’s core these authors call “collective genius.” Tese are leaders who
vision and values which we were always open to evolve where it create environments where “people are willing and able to do
made sense.” Heroku, and Vibe Managers like Brandon, have the work of innovation…and the opportunity to contribute his
a great deal to teach organizational leaders about avoiding the or her slice of genius to the collective genius of the whole” (p.
critical mistake of treating culture as an aferthought. Culture, 45). Tis approach that unleashes increased efciencies and the
not strategy, drives innovation and performance. Heroku gets it development of powerful new ideas stands opposed to the modus
(and so did Salesforce). operandi of leaders and supervisors who feel the need to control
the spigot of ideas and possibilities. Tese leaders, ofen steeped
PRACTICE 3: Identifying Managers and Supervisors in more traditional ways of managing as a form of control
who Actually Care about Engagement and the exercise of power, see themselves as gate keepers and
Gallup’s (2015) recent publication on the State of the American permission granters. In reality, they kill innovation, sufocate
Manager presents some abysmal but not surprising facts collective genius, and accelerate the disengagement levels of the
about the engagement level of managers. First, most CEOs are organization’s “most valuable asset.”
indifferent to engagement. Second, as a result, these leaders If a leader’s goal is to hire and retain the best for the
place little-to-no expectations on their human resources organization, and if the goal of the organization is to deliver
team to train and develop managers around engagement. incredible products and services to customers and clients, it is
Third, 82% of the time, organizations place the wrong people absolutely imperative to create the space and expectation for
in positions of management. Fourth, disengaged managers innovation as a vital part of the organization’s DNA. Leaders
spread disengagement like a contagion among employees and must not merely tolerate innovation; rather, they must welcome
team members. it with opens arms. Talented and bright professionals want
Te price that people and organizations pay for senior leaders to add value through innovation and the creative and shared
who are indiferent to engagement is signifcant. Rose, Shuck, exploration of possibilities. Tis very point was noted by Petrie
Twyford, and Bergman (2015) observed the incredible price (2015) who observed that one of the trends in the future of
organizational members pay when dysfunctional and abusive leadership development will be “the decline of the heroic leader
managers are placed in positions of infuence and power. [and] the rise of collective leadership” (p. 21). When it comes
When executive leaders and human resource departments to innovation, those leaders who are comfortable with the
are indiferent to the “engagement capacity” of those they messiness of collective exploration and risk-taking will fnd their
place into formal positions of management, the results are members highly engaged, committed, and productive.

LEADERSHIP Vol. 21.1 Spring/Summer 2015 11

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