Before a team follows a manager's orders, it checks one thing: does he know what he is doing? According to the source, competence is the first test, ahead of tone, kindness and force.
Someone people are willing to take orders from
The source turns the question around. It asks who you have to be for an order to be accepted, and says nothing yet about how to give one. According to the source, an executive can only do his job if others are willing to take orders from him.
That definition moves the discussion from tone to standing. If one person gives the same order in his first year and again in his third, it lands differently, and the wording has no part in the difference.
Suppose an owner asks his team to move to a new process in his first month. Nobody refuses, and nobody does it either.
A year later, after he has closed three problems the team had carried for years, he asks for the same thing. This time it happens within a week.
Or a new manager who launched a major change in her second day on the job. Three months on, people still treated her as the newcomer.
Competence is the first test
The source says exactly what is being tested. A follower of a leader requires him to pass one test first, and it is competence: “Does the leader know what he is doing?” A manager who meets that definition will find, according to the source, that the people he gives orders to are very likely to receive them in confidence.
The question asks nothing about whether the leader is nice, fair or good at explaining. Competence is the gate, and the rest comes after it.
For a small-business owner this is good news. Competence in the trade he already has. What is missing is competence in management, and that can be learned.
Suppose a garage owner whose mechanics rely on him fully when a car is on the lift, and hardly at all when he decides who works which shift. One man, two domains.
Or an owner who told her team openly that she is still learning pricing, so this month they would work it out together. Nobody lost confidence in her.
And the other direction: a manager who pretended to know a field he did not know. His team found out within two weeks, and from then on his orders in that area stopped landing.
Forcefulness works, but it does not last
The source also warns against the common substitute. The ability to lead can be compounded of forcefulness and demandingness, and these two often stand alone, with no regard to competence. Juniors accept them to the degree that they will obey, yet they give no long-term guarantee of an executive's supremacy. To win distinction and respect, a manager has to understand what he is doing and show competence over the long term.
The description is precise. Forcefulness works, and it gets compliance. It simply does not hold. That explains a familiar pattern: an owner gets a result from one outburst, and a month later he needs another, bigger one.
Suppose an owner shouts once and gets two weeks of exact work. By month three the shouting no longer moves anyone.
Or a manager who demanded reports forcefully and had no idea how to read them. They arrived on time, and they were wrong. Once he learned to read them and began asking one precise question about each, accuracy rose without him ever demanding it.
Whoever merely wants to be liked
The line that closes the chapter is the sharpest in the booklet: “A man who merely wants to be liked will never be a leader.” According to the source, others follow those who have the courage to get things done. People say they follow those they like, and a broad look at history shows they follow those they respect. Respect, according to the source, means recognizing inspiration, purpose and competence in someone.
The key word in the source is merely. Kindness is fine, and the difference lies between being liked and needing to be. An owner who needs his team's affection will find that he does not demand, does not correct and does not fire, and the price of all three falls on the team itself, higher than any moment of discomfort.
The source adds that all great leaders show a purpose and an intensity that are unmistakable, along with a certain amount of courage.
Suppose an owner went two years without telling an employee that his work was not good enough. When the owner finally dismissed him, the man replied that no one had ever raised it with him.
Or an owner who skipped a talk about lateness out of concern for feelings. The rest of the team started coming in late too, because it looked like the accepted standard. After one short, uncomfortable conversation the lateness stopped, and nobody left.
What the booklet has on this
The chapter this article draws on includes two exercises: The two domains, and The discomfort. It also has a self-check, and it sits inside a full booklet about what the manager's job requires of someone who hired a first employee.
If your team follows your orders in one area and ignores them in another, check your competence in the second area first, and the tone afterwards.
The booklet is general knowledge about managing people, not legal advice on employment law.