Are you a Leader of Minions?

Are you a Leader of Minions? Your job title says you are leader. What’s your self-assessment of your leadership style?

Are you certain the folks who work with you have the same assessment?

If you like being a Figurehead Leader, everyone working for you may be going through the motions from 9 to 5. If you are looking for a team that is fully engaged and collaborative 24/7, you may need to change your perspective.

The term minion is defined as the loyal and devoted follower of another, usually more powerful, entity or person.

If you are a Figurehead-style Leader, do your folks feel there are no other options, no way out or up from the day to day grind? If you are a leader of minions, your minions feel marginalized and pigeon-holed in specific job functions.

When you are a leader of minions, you can run into trouble. Minions get bored. They get into mischief. They aren’t fully engaged in getting from A to Z. They aren’t paying attention to detail.

Neither are you.

Your minions may not be as devoted and loyal to your leadership as you assume they are. Because your leadership style makes it All about You. There is no “We” when you are a Leader of Minions.

Leaders of minions: your folks are not a bunch of sheep. Your folks are not a commodity. Your minions have the potential for becoming Businesspeople of Worth.

Leaders of minions: your folks were hired to sell or manufacture or serve because they had hopes and dreams and goals of their own.

Leaders of minions: is your Figurehead Leadership style resulting in teams with poor self-image and low self-confidence? Is this the type of workplace legacy you want to create?

That’s not a solid leadership strategy at all. It’s more of a power trip.

No matter if you are at the helm of your own small business. No matter if you are the manager of the local pizza franchise. No matter if you are the foreman on the assembly line. No matter if you are the head of your startup. No matter if you head up your company’s sales organization.

Leadership involves communicating and facilitating teams to create greater outcomes than even they feel capable of. Leadership is all about you – and your team. It’s about creating We.

Leadership is about all of you getting to the finish line. Together.

If you currently are a leader who feels their job title gives them the authority to be a Leader of Minions, re-think your position. If you are brave, take the pulse of those minions. Listen to their feedback on how they perceive your leadership style. They have some process improvement revelations for you.

Your initial conversation may not be pretty, but it will be honest. That sounds like a great start to your growing a collaborative leadership style. You’ll stop thinking of your colleagues as minions, too.

Babette N. Ten Haken, President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC, is a professional development coach and management consultant. She remodels startups. She recalibrates small to medium size companies experiencing unpredictable revenue streams and inconsistent growth and expansion initiatives. Babette was named a Social Selling 2015 Top50  Influencer and a 2014 Top 50 Marketing & Sales Influencer. Babette’s blog won the 2014 Bronze Medal, Top Sales World.