In leadership, there are just as many methods of communication as there are leaders. Have you ever worked for a boss that liked to scream at you or others that you worked with? How did it make you feel? Or, have you worked for a boss that spoke calmly, and/or softly with words penetrated your souls? How did that leader make you feel? Each method of communication makes you feel a different way.
Today, I read the Wall Street Journal article titled, When The Boss Is A Screamer by Sue Shellenbarger. The article explained that the leaders from the past yelled and screamed at their employees to get things done. Yelling in the work place was a very common practice, but leadership is changing. Today’s leader is much more calm cool and collective.
Why is today’s leader different? In order to understand why today’s leader is different, you must understand the results from of being a screamer. The article mentioned six things that happen to employees as a result of yelling. Employees will:
- Have a decrease in their working memory which is your memory that allows you to store and use information from your memory.
- Bring less creativity to their jobs
- Become less competent in performing tasks
- Quit their jobs at higher rates
- Avoid resolving conflicts, allowing them to escalate
- Speed up their work on simple familiar tasks
If you have worked for a screamer before, you have probably experienced one of the feelings mentioned above. I have worked for a screamer and each of the results holds true.
This article provides a valuable lesson for me as a leader. Leaders must be patient with their employees and talk through things before yelling. Screaming only demeans people, destroys the team environment, and makes people want to retreat. It is destructive to people and the organization. Screaming drives away customers and the best employees.
As a leader, it is important to understand that it is very easy to raise your voice and scream, but it is hard to be calm and speak through the problem.
How do you speak with your employees and those you work with? Are you calm or do you scream? Have you worked for a screamer? How have you felt as you worked for a screamer? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!
I try and have a calm boldness when speaking to others. I have worked for a screamer and a calm talker and I can say I enjoy the calm talker more. Great thoughts and post.
Dan,
I like how you say “calm boldness”. That is a great way to put it because you can’t be afraid to state the facts as you see them, but you can maintain your calmness and speak with clarity as you do it. Great comment!
Great article Brandon I work in many developing countries and often find that individuals who are promoted to the ranks of management often manage others how they were managed, and yes it quite often involves a lot of screaming and intimidation. I wrote an article about one individual whose behaviour was so damaging subsequent managers are still trying to overcome the perception that all managers behave in this way, needless to say progress is slow:http://spectrain.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/management-effectiveness-zero-entertainment-value-costly/
Welcome Joy,
Unfortunately, I have seen many situations similar to the one one you mentioned. Leaders will yell and scream at people to completely demean them. Once they are done yelling, the leaders that scream feel like they are more important than everyone else. They feel like they are more powerful because they just got done yelling.
In reality, it takes a lot more patience to not yell. The leader that doesn’t yell instead explains and teaches people how to do things the right way. As part of that explanation they they teach what the person did right an wrong.
Thank you for your great comment Joy!