The game was close, the team had fought its way back from a two touchdown deficit late in the fourth quarter and with 2 minutes left in regulation a field goal would give them the lead.
With one more first down they would be well within field goal range so the coach called a time out. Coach Jones gave a fiery speech about winning at all cost and putting it all on the line for the Super Bowl Lombardi trophy. There were the numerous perfunctory references to male gonads, testicular tissue and other highly motivational rhetoric that falls under the general heading of "man talk".
The offense charged out onto the field got in the huddle and suddenly realized that the coach had not called a play. With time running and no more timeouts available, this highly motivated group of professional athletes had no clue what play to run.
But oh how they were charged up! Heck they were so motivated a couple of the offensive linemen forgot their helmets on the sideline. In their ramped up motivated state, heck who needed those stinking helmets anyway?
This analogy is a not much different than how some organizations approach leadership. It is what I call "the come to Jesus" leadership strategy. This strategy is big on the emotive but scarce on the cognitive.
Would it be any shock to you to learn that the quarterback in this scenario threw a horrible pass trying to evade the menacing defensive lineman who had obliterated the highly motivated helmetless right guard? The pass was intercepted by the other team and ran back 70 yards for a touchdown.
In NFL lingo, this is called throwing a "pick six"; in the corporate world this is called stupidity. Well that maybe a harsh term to use.
Many organizations implement a myriad of motivational strategies to incentivize employee performance yet fail miserably to achieve organizational goals, they fail to win the big prize. In business the big prize is measured by bottom line results and so many organizations fail to achieve their targeted results not because of the economy, not because of the competition, inflation or cost of labor but simply because they take the "come to Jesus" approach to leadership.
Not that I have anything against Jesus, I'm sure he was everything he was cracked up to be and maybe more but the come to Jesus method of organizational leadership is probably more suited for the charismatic televangelist who is trying a quick hustle to sell some holy water on a late night TV channel.
So before we move ahead, what exactly is organizational leadership?