The Leadership Shift: From Command & Control to Care & Collaboration

Hello KSKOers

It’s not like it was 25 years ago. When I started in the world of work, talking to people in senior positions wasn’t really the done thing. You did as you were told and tried your best not to find yourself at the sharp end of your boss’s pointing finger. I’m glad to say things are different now and employees have different expectations of their organisations. They hold their leaders to account or they speak up and move on. Join me in sharing my reflections on the last 20 years and observations on what Linda said.

Looking forward to joining you on your learning journey!

Start Here

I was lying in bed this morning and thinking about how leadership was when I started out in the world of work and musing about how different things are now. Of course, my reflections are biased. I started at the bottom and worked my way up, so as well and years, my levels of responsibility have changed too. “And with responsibility comes great power”. It also comes with a sense of confidence and knowledge that gives you a voice when others don’t.

I was pondering whether to make the 25 years of leadership the topic of this week’s blog and then I saw this video by the hilarious

Kate Waterfall Hill.

What Linda Thinks

Kate’s alter ego ‘Linda’ is the best worst manager you’ll ever come across. I hope you can access this skit on LinkedIn! The bit where Linda responds to the question about staff retention with “I don’t care. I just get Rachel in Recruitment to find someone else.” made me laugh too much, in a ‘you laugh or you cry’ kind of way.

Kate’s post reads…..

Who thinks the same style of leadership which was acceptable (or tolerated) 20 years ago is still OK in 2025?

Linda does.

How might you prove she’s wrong?

– High staff turnover and repeat recruitment costs
– Low employee motivation and engagement
– Low performance and productivity
– High levels of conflict or tension
– Low trust, innovation and collaboration
– Lack of ownership and accountability
– Poor wellbeing and high sickness absence

If you have any of these issues, it might mean the leadership skills in your senior team need a refresh.

I suspect lots of you will be reading this and nodding as you allocate names to different individuals who haven’t changed, learnt or adapted their leadership style.

Leadership Then

25 years ago we had fewer leaders and far more……