Leadership lessons from the communist time
I just realized that I have not been writing here for more than an year, despite my regular calendar reminders. 2023 was definitely strange for me, both professionally and personally. I came at a crossroad, thinking about what my next career step should be, dwelling in the dilemma “should I stay, or should I go now”, struggling with internal conflicts and self-doubt. Naturally, I realize there is no right or wrong, paths can change and nothing is definitive until you believe it is. Anyways, enough drama, I choose to leave it all behind, and focus on what is ahead of me, especially in the next couple of months (like finishing my MBA and doing a specialization).
What I wanted to share in this story is a conversation I had with my father a couple of nights ago. He is long retired, but he used to be a mechanic in one of the biggest industrial districts in Bulgaria, “Kremikovtsi”. He spent more than 30 years working there, but I found out about some aspects of his work that were new to me. For example, my father went to do military service and when he came back he was promoted to “manager” of his 9-people team of mechanics. He was 24 years old and he was the eldest one (imagine that!). It is very important to state that the whole story is taking place in the early 70s of the last century when in Bulgaria there was a communist regime and a dictatorship. The amazing thing to me is that my father was sent to “managerial lessons” before he stepped in to the new position and he was taught things like:
- you should not yell at your people
- you need to praise and recognize them according to their performance and individual achievements (he even had to fill a personal contribution index for each person on the team, starting from 1 — just doing their job to 1.7 — exceeding expectations, which was then used as a multiplier to their monthly salaries)
- you should be considerate of your people personal situations and be flexible to the different circumstances they might be in (e.g. sick relatives, issues at home, etc.)
These are just a couple of examples of what they taught him and yet, I find it fascinating in a time and place where positions of power (even low level power like the one in question) were given based on who you know and how “useful” are you to the regime. Definitely not based on personal qualities and performance. And when I look around nowadays, in the corporate world I work in for the past almost 15 years, I realize that those lessons are more than valid today and we, as leaders, should pause and reflect more often on how we communicate with our people. Most of us know the theory, we have all been through extensive training programs and workshops, we “know it all”. And yet, today’s workforce is the most disengaged one since they started doing research on the topic. Is it just that expectations are changing, or we, leaders, are getting worse at our job?
I cannot say I have the answer to those questions, but it keeps coming down to action. Action is the real knowledge, as I learned recently in a workshop. So, take action, and be the best possible leader you can be.
