Do Employees Understand the Strength and Power They Possess?

Look, even for the most well-established business advisory firms or individuals, it’s very easy for one to sit in their comfortable chair and criticise workers of a certain establishment for not really understanding just how much power they possess in their hands. They likely do indeed understand, but are even likelier just part of a system which doesn’t incentivise them to entertain thoughts of that power, let alone develop and deploy it.

Think about it from the point of view of a typical employee. The eight hours of soul-crushing work have you not wanting to have anything to do with work-related matters once you knock-off and certainly not on your officially designated private time, like over weekends. And nobody can blame them.

The bigwigs are paid the big bucks to not only make sure everyone else has a job they can actually come in to, but also that they’ll have those jobs in the future. So in the event that these bigwigs proclaim defeat to an impending liquidation as a result of insolvency, it can probably be assumed with near 100% certainty that all avenues have been exhausted and that that’s the best course of action to follow.

Nobody wants to have to carry the record of having overseen the loss of hundreds of jobs, especially at an organisation that has grown to become a huge part of the economic identity of a specific region or an entire country.

Let’s play the devil’s advocate for a bit though and try to flip the argument on its head and view things from a different point…

Doing so suggests that employees do indeed possess a whole lot more strength and power than they’re aware of. The major problem is perhaps that they’re afraid to even attempt to use that power, as doing so might appear to resemble shooting themselves in the foot. And, in most cases, they end up on the wrong side of the river where they do not have any choice but to follow the leaders.

However, this should not be happening in an ideal work environment. Employees possess far more capabilities than what is typically utilized by their employers. While some employees may be aware of the power they hold, many others may not realize how they can contribute more to the organization. One common approach employed by employers to unlock their employees’ full potential is through effective mentoring (facilitated by tools like Together Mentoring Software), and by providing adequate resources.

Another very powerful psychological barrier to any thoughts of an attempt to exercise that power is that of just how difficult self-organization is. When the giant Grangemouth petrochemical plant in central Scotland was on a collision course with a permanent shutdown, an outsider looking in might be baffled at the fact that the workers failed to realize that they could have successfully facilitated something like an employee takeover.

After all, among themselves, they had all the knowledge required to run a company. Some kind of leadership coaching (you can check resources like https://www.hansenbeck.com/ to learn more about leadership coaching) could have further helped them to take the initiative to rise up to the requisite leadership roles and keep the business running.

It could have helped them to become more self-aware and improve team dynamics by identifying blind spots in personal performances. Simply put, leadership coaching could have unlocked their true potential. It could have helped them fine-tune a growth mindset to identify opportunities to thrive during the tough times. With the right leadership training, they would have performed at their best and yielded better business results when they were faced with challenges.

Truth be told, there is no power that could be unlocked if those in question decide not to give up. Being optimistic and courageous to learn new things could help in overcoming difficult times. But this needs determination and motivation to stay on the right track without any distractions. Commitment to the work should be the highest level of priority.