Ceo Leadership

As the CEO of my company in Trinidad, my issue is bringing the organization to a place where nepotism no longer exists. The practice of nepotism is rampant throughout my country, mainly in government offices and some of the ‘big’ family conglomerates.

Most people don’t apply for better jobs because they maintain the mentality that company already found the person they want and the interview is just a formality. In some cases, it might be true, we already have the perfect person for the job. But then how do we get people to grow if we ourselves are not open to the possibility that there could be someone better to fill the position.

The ideal state of where we want to be is a place where everyone knows that they have an equal opportunity to succeed. The dangers of nepotism are only to real and should never be bypassed, as it leads to a disruption in the work force. Companies that operate through nepotism promote favouritism amongst employees, and relatives/ friends, they also lack genuine accountability and fairness in their practices. It is always good to occasionally monitor staff to ensure no such relationships have developed over time, this can be done through the adoption of anti-nepotism polices.

The perceived favouritism that occurs can lead to an overall demoralized and dissatisfied staff, where employees may feel inclined to perform their responsibilities less meticulously and competently if they feel that their paths to a promotion are undermined by nepotism. A company can see their most competent and valuable employees seek employment elsewhere, as a way of protesting the methods employed at the company. At a minimum, workers will likely complain and become embittered and less productive in the face of blatant nepotism.

Blatant nepotism also leads to a lower productivity and inferior products. The use of nepotism to reward employees who are undeserving shows weak leadership skills on the part of management and senior executives of a company.

One can develop these anti-nepotism and anti-fraternization policies in the employee hand book and provide guidelines to both lower level staff and upper management. An example of such a policy would be the prohibition of hiring a relative of any employee under any circumstance, of course this would be subject to how large the corporate entity is. In that case, the hiring of relatives can be allowed as long as they is not direct or indirect contact between the individuals. These precautionary policies are sensible and should be used by our company in some form.

Another strategy that can be employed is an annual conflict of interest form that would disclose such information where such a relationship exists.

Nepotism does not even have to be between family and friends, but managers can engage in the practice of nepotism by ‘playing’ favourites among staff. This all leads to the problems identified above.  

The technical problems are the ones that can be solved by use of the anti-nepotism and the anti-fraternization policies. It is easy to have employees fill out forms stating that they will not entertain any conflicts of interest, the hard part is the implementation of these policies and getting staff to follow it.

I intend to employ the characteristics of authentic leadership development (Avolio, Gardner, 2005) and link them to my leadership training where I was called upon to draw on my sources of inner power as put forth by Dr. Theodore Ferguson to become a better leader as follows:

1. Positive psychological capital: this includes confidence, optimism, hope, and resilience as personal resources for an authentic leader. This can be linked to Dr. Ferguson’s notion of Principle Consciousness, where we must be aware of what we create from our thoughts. It brings us the capacity to see and experience life unfolding as we constantly change our thoughts.
2. Positive Moral perspective: this is about being ethical and transparent in the decision-making process. Authentic leaders display a certain amount of moral capacity, efficiency, courage, and resilience to address ethical issues such as nepotism, and achieve authentic and sustained moral actions. By increasing my knowledge base, I can develop various training programs that will help show how nepotism negatively affects other members of staff. Having a basic understanding of why nepotism exists will help me combat it to reach that future state.
3. Leader Self-awareness: the four elements of self-awareness are values, cognitions regarding identity, emotions, and motives/ goals. This level of self-awareness can be linked to emotional mastery, and the ability to successfully attain mindfulness. By reaching a state of mindfulness, I will be more aware of my emotions and thoughts, as well as the motions of others. It will give me the ability to manage the relationships between myself and my colleagues more effectively and be in tune with their goals and achievements.
4. Leader self-regulation: this is the process by which authentic leaders align their values with their intentions and actions, or their purpose. My purpose for a better tomorrow must be shared and viewed by everyone that works for me. There must be some common ground between myself and my employees. We will all have different purposes but the most important aspect is for it to be aligned with how we help our fellow human beings gain the recognition they deserve based on their own qualities and characteristics, not just based on who they do or do not know.
5. Leadership processes/ behaviours: we can use both personal and social identification processes to have followers identify with authentic leaders, and align their values with that of the leaders. Followers and leaders both need to understand change if they are to make a positive one. They need to be able to make the tough decisions and follow through with them.

Why should I develop these authentic characteristics with the five sources of inner power to become a better leader?

By developing these characteristics or using authenticity over more mainstream leadership theories is because its more generic, and can be applied to every facet of life. These elements constitute what it means to form positive leadership, authenticity in no way guarantees the accuracy of predictions but it allows followers to be more engaged and intelligent about the direction that is being set. This way they can contribute their best views and questions about the desired future state and help it become a reality.