When you say everyone in your company is a leader, it’s like saying everyone is a human. It doesn’t mean anything when everybody is it.
Most organizations are based on the assumption that everybody craves respect and the only way to get it is to climb up in the hierarchy as fast as we can. Companies set up recognition, prestige, pay, benefits, office, and title to encourage people to scramble up that ladder. The message from most companies is that you should want to be a leader, and if you don’t there’s something wrong with you.
Leadership is the most respected and rewarded role in business. But I think we’ve done a terrible disservice to the idea that there is nobility, prestige, and respect due for any role done with excellence.
The Peter Principle was written in 1969 as a terrible fate to be avoided, yet the most creative way we’ve thought of to reward someone for excellence in a role is still to move them out of it.
It’s okay for some people. Is it for everybody? We need to find ways to encourage people to pursue prestige without telling them that the only way to grow and get more respect is to move out of what they are doing.
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