WHY IS DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP HARD?

The broad classification of leadership can be done on these three types wherein the scale of freedom can be measured between ‘Autocratic’ and ‘Laissez-faire’. Decisions are faster in both Autocratic and Laissez-faire types of leaderships, however, distributary leadership is about building a team and working together with shared values.  Obviously, this becomes difficult.  The major block is when we require all members of the team to work towards a committed and convicted job.  Human mind definitely searches the easy way out.  The main concept of distributary leadership thus, is a cyclic process of analysis, discussions and finalisations with guaranteed arguments and lots of conflicts.  Here is the cyclic process discussed.

This leadership values every individual in the team, the conviction of its team members leads to success.  The question then is – How to achieve this conviction and why is it so difficult?

Well the values behind such leadership are themselves, for and against the leadership.   They are

The leadership warrants respect among its members.  The members need to believe in the values of the organisation or the team.  They should mutually trust in building a positive culture and environment within the organisation.  Every argument, every conflict should be towards the value built for achieving the goal rather than individual interests.

Building respect, belief and trust among members is the most difficult task within organisations.  The major reason being ‘individual interest’ and ‘selfish attitude’.  Within a given work environment, the transparency of the nature of work, positives and profits are rarely discussed openly.  This leads to unequal distribution of workload, hidden agendas and unwarranted benefits for a few.  Once the ‘sense of doubt’ enters the mind automatically, the value and culture of the organisation moves towards its downfall.  Unfortunately, this is what predominates in todays organisations. 

This being a part of the difficulty of distributed leadership another major aspect is – it is easy to handle things when one dictates and others follow or to allow them to do on their own.

 

“When the boss says – we just follow, no questions asked.”

The easy part is, if, anything goes wrong, the boss should take the blame.  However, is this a perfect solution for problems or issues at hand - ‘NO’.  A single person will not be able to analyse the given problem/issue in all dimensions (or), in the other case of leadership: If each individual handles the problem or issue in their own way, the direction of organisational value is totally destroyed.  The multidimensional approach of handling issues as in Laissez-faire, may lead to engineering parts which do not connect perfectly with one another.   

Schools and organisations are partly to be blamed for this attitude developing among the members of the society.  Learning has always been competitive and the select few are provided with provisions unimaginable.  The rest discriminated on their learning potential.  Well, it is obvious that ‘we judge a fish by its ability to climb trees’.  The innocent minds are provided an opportunity to start differentiating ‘the awarded and not awarded conditions’ which stress them to insecure corners. Thus, begins the downfall of values like -Respect, trust and belief. 

Trust begins when we feel safe, when respect and security is not provided the leadership calculations for a better world is only a Utopian dream.

If neuroplasticity is true, then why is change difficult?

Brain is the most complex organ in our body.  It remained a mystery for many years.  Now, Brain research has opened this ‘Pandora's box’ and new evidences point towards areas which were considered sedentary.  Engaging, challenging, moving and involving has become key terms for an active brain.  Understanding the intricacies of learning has taken a new step with the knowledge of neuroplasticity.

What is neuroplasticity?

Scientific evidence has shown that brain can learn at all ages.  Brain is not a solid frigid organ, which stops learning at a young age as previously thought, but more flexible and plastic in nature.  The ability of the brain to transform and translate comes with its ability to be plastic.  Brain based learning researches have proved that brain accepts new facts and processes when tuned to it.

However, learning has always been a challenge among students as well as adults and the question is why?

When our brain is so tuned to learn new things and understand new surroundings, training and implementing new practices is the most difficult process.  Is it because of the complexity of the new process or the basic emotional response associated with learning new things?

It is well understood the logical brain is the newly evolved brain while the primitive brain is the one which responds first when we come across any situations.  The primitive brain or the evolved brain sets its focus only on ‘fight or flight’ both emotionally opposing factors. Adult brain which carries the bitter experiences of childhood relates new experiences to the old harsh ones and the response being ‘fight’ or ‘flight’. 

Stressors or stress signaling incidents relate response to fear.  The ultimate ‘fear of failing’ makes the learner take a back step.  The problem of ‘fear’ may not be based on the current job or situation, it can be a response to traumatic childhood experiences or personal family problems which does not allow the individual to move forward towards new engagements.  Risk taking is a challenging aspect, only learners who have the ability to bend or attune this fear will overcome the hurdle of learning in a new facts in a new environment. 

The safety of the environment is also a deciding factor in learning.  Learner needs to feel safe in the environment of learning.  Organisations which do not provide this factor in terms of safety of the employee, related benefits and their functions would face failure in changing their learning attitudes.  Behaviors, systems and practices of organisations decide the continuity and the learning potential of individuals.  Google is a best example for such organisations.

1.       Do organisations provide scope for making mistakes?

2.       Are you comfortable in making mistakes?

Mistakes should help us understand the criteria’s required for the process completion, as Thomas Edison rightly puts it ‘I have not failed, I have found 10,000 ways that won’t work’.  When mistakes are pointed out claiming – waste of time or money, learning stumbles. 

Emotionally unstable or stressed brain does not function towards achievement.  When learning environments overcome such factors, change is the result.  It is important to understand that classrooms where our children learn are no different.  When the environment children are, is not emotionally safe, learning and change does not occur. As

Rita Pearson says – “Kids don’t learn from a person they don’t like’, the factor of ‘favoritism’ is based on the emotional connection the teacher or the mentor makes with the student or mentee respectively.  This emotional connection constructs memories which help in change.  Without an emotional contact, not established between organisations and teachers, teachers and students, students and parents, change will still be a far fetched dream.