Nam Do's Blog.

Intense Leadership style

I recently read an article on HBR blogs named “Is it OK to Yell at Your Employees?”. Very interesting.

First and foremost it points out that the answer is open. There are many leaders famous for raising their voices, especially Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Sir Alex Ferguson. However, the core problem does not lie in the decision to yell or not.

It is in the leadership style, the personality of both the leader and the organization. Yelling indicates high expectations and level of intensity. However, if one only yells for the love of yelling and bossing around, the result might turn out not that good..

I personally lean towards the yelling side, as I’d prefer a high level of intensity at work. It shows a high expectation of every task, as demonstrated in organizations like Apple or Manchester United. I think great companies should work this way (at a high level of intensity I mean, not… always yelling at each other).

So, as a lesson for me to take away from the article, a company’s culture is important as an underlying factor affecting its productivity, as learned in COMM101. If the environment is enthusiastic yet can get intense at times, employees should pay a little more attention and do their work more passionately. Or, as quoted in the article, “…at the organizations that seem to have the greatest energy and drive, the conversations aren’t whispered and the disagreements aren’t polite”.

Nam,

Check out the interesting article.