Why strong leadership doesn’t mean leading with power. In this Tough Things First podcast Ray Zinn offers some thoughts on why many organizational leaders get it wrong.

Rob Artigo: Well, you recently wrote, Ray, “The essence of leadership is not the wielding of power, but rather the wielding of grace and nurturing.” This is in line with what you wrote in your new book, The Essential Leader. You have made it a practice of being closer to your employees than the average CEO. Over the many years that you ran Micrel, 37 years you ran Micrel and you made a difference in the way that you operated as a CEO, which made you stand out from other CEOs in Silicon Valley. Why is that?

Ray Zinn: Well, if you’re wielding your leadership with power, that’s a negative. In other words, you’re using fear to get what you want done. And instead of wielding power, you’re wielding grace and nurturing, that’s love. So the difference is one is fear and the other is through love.

When we did a study on people who exited the company or left the company, we found that 75% of the people that leave are leaving because they’re having a problem with their manager because that manager wielded power rather than nurturing and grace. If you think of that, that’s 75% of the people, if that study that we did is correct, that 75% of the people that are unhappy at work are unhappy because of their boss and that that’s critical.

So managing by love, we talk about the steward leadership, you’re actually leading your flock as opposed to driving them. So as a shepherd, as you would, if he is a true shepherd, then he’s out in front leading his flock. If he’s having to dry the flock, he’s behind him with a whip or with some kind of punishing device to make them do what he wants them to do. And so when you wield power, you’re driving, you’re doing it through fear and intimidation. If you’re doing it through grace and love, then you’re out in front leading them. You’re not pushing them or driving them. And that’s why I came up with that musing referring to wield grace and truth, not power as a leader. And I think that’s important and critical if you want a stable and a loving workforce.

Rob Artigo: And you had an open door policy, you said, “Hey, come talk to me if you want.” I suppose there are some CEOs out there wielding their power in a authoritarian manner where they might say, “Hey, I have an open door policy,” but nobody ever goes there because they’re afraid of talking to that person. You made it a practice of walking around and talking to your employees so that they knew you well, and they knew that they could trust you if they had something they wanted to talk to you about. I suppose that makes a difference in the way that the employees behave?

Ray Zinn: Yeah. I recently did a leadership training for a company and I had the CEO of the company rank the people that reported to him and the managers that were reporting to the CEO, had them rank the people that were working for them and so forth and so on down the line. And it was interesting that the first line was like the CEO, the managers that worked for him, he rated them high, but he also rated the people that worked for his managers, he rated them low. But when we looked at the managers, they rated their employees high. So you can see that the second level, the CEO thought we’re doing a poor job, but yet the people that are working directly for them, the first line of managers, rated them higher.

So there’s a miscommunication there between the CEO and the second line of managers versus the first line. And I thought that was interesting. So there’s a breakdown. There’s a communication issue. It’s like dropping water over a cliff. If you’re right underneath the vessel that you’re dumping the water with, you’re going to get drenched. But as a water then gets down to the bottom of the cliff, you don’t feel it at all. So what’s happening is that apparently the CEO does not have faith in his first line managers or he would’ve rated the people that work for them higher. There’s a communication issue that has to be resolved where the first line manager rates his direct reports much better than he rated the people that were below them. I just say that’s a huge breakdown, I think, in communication that they have to resolve. And that’s the whole purpose of that musing, wielding grace and nurturing, not power.

Rob Artigo: The people that were in that class and the CEO and then the mid-managers and whatnot, were they surprised by that result and your take on it?

Ray Zinn: I wasn’t surprised. I was disappointed, obviously, but I wasn’t surprised because this is why I was there, was to dig into the problem. And it’s not surprising that the second level people rank their employees better than first level. That’s not unusual. You see, you tend not to want to blame the people report to you because you want to be considered to be a good manager. So obviously you’re going to rank those that report directly to you, you’re going to rate them higher. And you don’t have as much confidence or you don’t have as much love for the people that report to the first line managers, so you tend to rate them lower because that’s why you’re having problems in your company is because you believe that the lower level people are not doing their job. It’s not true. It’s first line that’s not doing their job or the CEO would love those that report to them.

We need to go to school on that and understand why it is that the people that report directly to you, you rank higher than those that report to them. And if that’s the case, you have a problem in your company or your organization. This is pretty universal. I mean, This is not just at this one company. I mean, I’ve seen this, even the school and in universities. I’ve seen it happen in nonprofit organizations. I’ve seen it in religious organizations and social organizations. This is not something new. This is a problem where the top managers think that that report to the first line managers are not doing their job. And that’s a definite signal or sign that you have a problem within your company. If you don’t feel as good about the people that report to your first line, if you don’t have as good a feeling about that, then that means you’ve got to breakdown somewhere in your organization.

Rob Artigo: And obviously Ray, you have said that it’s important for you as CEO to know your people and nurture them, but be a mentor, and that’s the remedy to the problem that exists, like you said, universally across different organizations.

Ray, the listeners can join the conversation at ToughThingsFirst.com. Their questions and comments are always welcome. Ray, you’re on X and Facebook and LinkedIn, and of course your books are out there. You have the Tough Things First book, you have Zen of Zen 1, 2 and 3, and of course the new book, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals That Make Up the Essential Leader. Ray, another great podcast. Thank you.

Ray Zinn: Well, thanks Rob.