Editor's Note: Since this article's original posting, there has been so much interest in the stories of Carson and Chad - "Who is Carson? Who is Chad? Are they real?" - that we updated the story with an embedded video clip of Mary Michelle Scott interviewing our employee Carson earlier today. So for all of you who wondered - say hello to Carson:
Fishbowl President Mary Michelle Scott interviews Carson, Fishbowl Customer Support Employee
An engineering researcher was clairvoyant when he said in 1994 that subordinates often make the best leaders:
“Often with small groups, it is not the manager who emerges as the leader. In many cases it is a subordinate member with specific talents who leads the group in a certain direction. Leaders must let vision, strategies, goals, and values be the guide-post for action and behavior, rather than attempting to control others." –Daniel F. Predpall
As my leadership partner Mary Michelle Scott and I work to facilitate new records for our company’s growth, we couldn’t agree more. Listen to what D. Predpall said next:
“When a natural leader emerges in a group containing a manager, conflict may arise if they have different views. When a manager sees the group looking towards someone else for leadership he may feel his authority is being questioned.”
Fast forward to 2012. What if a company simply dispensed with traditional managers? What if every employee had the opportunity and potential to lead? What if everyone was given the freedom to consider "Am I doing the right things?" instead of just "Am I doing things 'right'?"
For example in our inventory control software company, Fishbowl, one of the newest trainers on the team, Chad, is the person who discovered a new way to do some of our training more efficiently, while providing on-site training with one of our customers.
In another case, someone quite new to the company, Carson, was one of the first to figure out how to use Fishbowl Inventory most effectively on an iPad. She’s quickly become an expert at loading and integrating the software onto the mobile screen and getting it to work for customers through the world.
Job security? You bet!
But how does a company with no managers (none at all) actually work? I’ll talk about the concept in more depth in my next column—but in short, we rely on two of the 7 Non Negotiables we’ve declared as our foundation and watchwords—Trust and Commitment—to empower every member of the company. We encourage them at every level to freely expand the organization within themselves we refer to as “Me, Inc.” That is the organization with no limits that every individual can lead.
The results for our company, recently, have been the results I hope would happen for any company that genuinely tries this approach: Record sales, innovation and increased customer satisfaction. Perhaps this is a lesson for others?
I have strong opinions on this topic, which I will post in more depth in my column next week. I welcome your thoughts.
Additional reporting provided by Mary Michelle Scott, Fishbowl President.
Author: David K. Williams | Google+
