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How to Empower Without Losing Control
Today’s complexity and volatility prompt leaders to assert control. Here’s the problem.
I don’t believe the hype that leaders are facing more complexity and volatility than ever. Few today have had to deal with the business or military implications of existential threats such as sudden workforce exposure to incurable diseases, the need to find and ration drinkable water, famine, and unpredictable weather events. The logistics of sustaining a 100,000-person army marching through unmapped, hostile territory entail staggering complexity. Could today’s leaders build Luxor under the conditions 6,500 years ago?
Today’s complexity is challenging in different ways. AI is upending businesses and careers, creating new markets and destroying existing ones. Who wants to be a computer programmer anymore? Political, social, and economic volatility accelerates change and disruption as alliances fray, political parties radicalize, pandemics spread, wars disrupt economies, tariffs drive up costs, supply chains become shaky, and new and old bigotries tear people apart, to name a few.
Uncertainty creates fear, and safety is your first instinct. Asserting control is a common way to increase the feeling of security. Herein lies the risk.
Many leaders seek control by centralizing execution, decisions, problem-solving, and innovation. You feel safer that everything is in your capable hands. No chaos, no stray voltage, no freelancing. The instinct is understandable, but the response is damaging.
I know, because I’ve made the same mistake.
I was in charge of a challenging mission and wanted everything to go right. I thought I could reduce risk and increase control over outcomes by demanding more information, centralizing decision-making, and directing action.
It felt safe, and I felt like a good leader for taking on the excess burdens and risks. I was exhausted, but proud of myself for stepping up at a difficult time.
Mission accomplished, I surveyed people for their reactions.
Their responses floored me. People felt stifled, shut out of important information, micro-managed, frustrated at seeing missed opportunities, and that I didn’t trust them.
“You are the worst leader I’ve ever had.” Ouch!
What I learned from the experience was the difference between centralizing control of decisions and actions (what I call detailed control) versus asserting clarity over purpose, priorities, standards, and boundaries, while decentralizing decisions and actions to trusted, capable people (directive control).
This approach proved invaluable in Afghanistan, when our unit of 800 paratroopers was spread over seven remote outposts in a 6,000km square area with over 250,000 civilians in over 100 villages, and a deadly insurgency. Trying to exert detailed control would have undermined the mission and put people at greater risk.
Instead, we practiced directive control. An extraordinary network of aligned individual decisions and actions motivated a big insurgent group to stop fighting and become allies.
Business examples abound.
Netflix famously asserts control over standards, values, financial discipline, and strategic direction, while delegating hiring, vendor selection, and product decisions to the lowest capable level.
Toyota directs exacting safety, quality, and production standards, and empowers employees to stop production if they sense something amiss.
By contrast, Sears centralized decision-making and operational control in the wake of threats from Wal-Mart and Amazon. They became slower and less responsive to a dynamic market, ultimately going out of business.
Possibility
What if your entire organization could act with AI-like speed and disciplined judgment?
Imagine a business where people solve problems at the lowest level, make sound decisions that improve performance and reduce risk, and proactively create and seize opportunities to advance the mission. No chaos, no freelancing, no stray voltage.
Directive control unlocks your team’s energy to move your priorities forward without constant direction.
Instead of serving as the lone engine of progress, you become the architect of momentum, so that people throughout the organization take initiative aligned with your goals.
That’s the promise of the 3-Discipline Leadership System™: you can implement directive control safely and with confidence, creating team-driven momentum so you can spend less time managing execution and more time shaping the future.
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