In the modern, financially driven organization, people are reduced to being extensions of the systems in use. Management is authoritarian, hierarchical and monopolistic. Using a comparison between Windows and Mac operating systems, John Fletcher charts the reasons why this approach to management seems bound to fail in the end.

Leaders have never been more worshiped than now; paid such phenomenal salaries; had so many adulatory articles written about them. More books are written about how to be a leader, and more training courses offered on leadership, than ever before in human history. Yet the quality of leadership — in business, in government and administration, and in politics — has probably never been lower. We are certainly going to need real leaders again soon. The question is whether there are any left.

What are the consequences for an economy where so much is owed by so many to so few? Can you really be happy working for an organization which only exists to rob
and pillage? We don’t know much about the personnel management and career development practices of pirate ships, but we can assume they weren’t particularly enlightened. Reports from the time speak of ruthless psychopathic captains, promotion by intrigue and treachery, no job security and a ruthless financial short-termism.

Avoiding the down-side of today’s management platitudes about competition

This guest posting is by Karen Senteio, Business and Life Coach and President of VERVE. You can read more about her and her business here.
The corporate world has gone mad — and we have gone mad with it. A disease has penetrated too many organizations. [...]

(This is a guest post by John Fletcher. John is an Englishman now resident in Europe, with a long career in the public sector in several countries. He has spent a good deal of time in working environments outside the Anglo-Saxon world, and has written and lectured on organizational issues.)
We all have to make decisions [...]

How “reference anxiety” can cripple you
(This guest post has been contributed by Peter G. Vajda, Ph.D, a founding partner of SpiritHeart, an Atlanta-based company that supports conscious living through coaching, counseling and facilitating.)
 
Many folks are “making a living” yet lack a sense of significance: a “meaning” in what they do. Rather than exploring the [...]

(This guest posting is by Karen Senteio. You can find out more about her and her work at www.vimandverve.net.)
Demanding fairness from the universe is a debilitating waste of effort
 
Do you spend time lamenting how unfair life is and how you got the short end of the stick? Are you sometimes stuck in this unproductive [...]

Can you hear the crack of the boss’s whip?
 
This guest posting is by Karen Senteio, Business and Life Coach and President of VERVE. You can read more about her and her business here.
In the movie the “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” the significance of relationships, loyalty and support are unfolded in a touching and [...]

Delegation. Does the word evoke strong, perhaps other-than-positive, emotions in you? If it does, you’re not alone. If there is a single most misunderstood or misused concept in business, the delegation process is the leading candidate.
Repairing or refining how delegation works in an organization may be the biggest bang-for-the-buck in organizational [...]

This post has been contributed by one of our regular readers. If you too would like to suggest an article for Slow Leadership, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact us at authors@slowleadership.org.

When I�€™m out and about in the business arena discussing �€œthings employee�€�, the issues that are fast becoming big topics [...]