Companies, not countries, are currently destroying democracy around the world. Over the past two years, we’ve seen the rise of what I call “CDOs” – Chief Dictate Officers – controlled by fear, greed, or malicious intent, trying to control every dimension of their employees’ lives. The place where most of us spend much of our time – the workplace (whether in-person or virtual) – has become the bastion of authoritarianism. CDOs and their fellow fear-based leaders are now exerting power over every aspect of their employees’ lives. They are telling people how to think, what to say, and what to put in their bodies. They are threatening workers’ livelihoods and their sense of personal dignity and worth, stripping them of self-government.
And to what end? Fear and control in the workplace kill morale. Corporate dictatorship results in bad, shortsighted decisions that cost money in the long term. It stymies creativity, engagement, honest conversations, and personal motivation. The desire for control creates an overabundance of rules, policies, bureaucracy, silos, hierarchy, and fiefdoms that keep an organization from staying lean, productive, agile, and competitive. Rather than growing true leaders, corporate dictatorship cultivates a dependency or victim-based mentality, where employees look to management to tell them what to do.
In the words of Patrick Henry, “Fear is the passion of slaves.” Fear at work limits us in the workplace and stressed us out at home. It keeps us from developing into the leaders that we’re all capable of becoming. The Great Resignation is the first step towards people demanding more freedom at work. We are all tired of being controlled.
Instead of dictatorships, companies should be run on democratic leadership principles. No, I don’t mean everyone should sit around and vote on everything. Voting is a way of deciding but does not itself make an organization democratic. So, what is democracy?
Democracy is a system of leadership principles that empower people to determine their individual and collective paths to freedom and prosperity. The essence of democracy is that every individual should have the power and ability to shape their lives and futures as they choose. Democracy serves three functions in one: It’s a leadership style, a system of organizational design, and a system of governance. It gives power to the people in a way that releases human potential so we all may flourish. We want democracy in every other area of our lives, so why not in the workplace as well? And what role can – and should – strengthening freedom and democracy in our workplace bring to strengthening freedom democracy in our world?
When I began exploring the concepts of leading with freedom and democracy in the business world, only a small number of organizations were even interested in the topic. I had to literally travel the world to identify those few that were trying to prove the economic and social value of freedom and organizational democracy in the workplace by practicing it. It took me, and my team, ten years of observation, study, and analysis to develop a clear leadership model for a world that is complex, interconnected, and desperately in search of more humanity in the way we lead and work. The result was the Freedom at Work leadership model, and its three pillars (Freedom-Centered Mindset, Leadership, and Design), which codify how leaders and leading organizations are creating optimal environments for success. Over the past 25 years, it’s become a leadership system now used by thousands of top leaders and hundreds of companies worldwide.
Freedom at Work shows every leader how to develop high self-worth and self-knowledge, and how to self-govern effectively. Freedom requires personal accountability, discipline, and integrity. Democracy, then, is the framework for freedom, and guides us in structuring our teams and our organizations for maximum success. The result is leaders who are confident in their leadership abilities with the understanding, and the moral courage, to resist the pull of fear-based leadership tactics.
Having more freedom and democracy in our workplaces impacts the bottom line as well. An independent study done on our clients practicing a democratic leadership style saw an average cumulative revenue growth rate over a three-year period that was nearly seven times that of the S&P 500 companies.
Lastly, Freedom at Work builds a more democratic world. Instead of expecting our governments to be the promoters and guarantors of democracy, when often they are more interested in controlling us, leaders committed to freedom can help build a more democratic world, team by team, organization by organization.
It’s time for business and organizational leaders to step up and intentionally choose to lead their teams and organizations with freedom rather than fear and control, teaching people how to be engaged democratic citizens in the workplace each day. Leaders of all types of organizations are uniquely positioned to lead their teams using freedom rather than fear and control. And I believe they have a moral and ethical responsibility to do so. This is a powerful (and often overlooked!) way to weave a robust web of democracy throughout every corner of our world—and bend the future toward freedom for generations yet to come.
