Daniel Edds’ new book Leveraging the Genetics of Leadership: Cracking the Code of Sustainable Team Performance uses a DNA and genetics metaphor to describe how leadership can be an engineered system. In these pages, he explores why systems thinking creates a wonderful opportunity to rethink organizational leadership.
Edds feels that more than enough books have been written on leadership. But most of those books focus on the importance of personal leadership and how the individual reader can become a better leader. Edds takes a different approach by showing how leadership can be a system that governs how the entire organization works. He then looks at what the DNA of that system would be, how the system would be structured, and how it would affect productivity, profits, and most importantly, job satisfaction among employees.
As Edds researched for this book how leadership might work as a system, he came across examples of organizations where leadership systems already existed in places as diverse as the Mafia, the US Army, the Salvation Army and school systems.
In Leveraging the Genetics of Leadership, Edds uses some very specific examples of organizations that have made leadership systematic, often without realizing it. He tells the stories of those organizations, looks at how they operate, and shares his interviews with their leaders. In the process, he explores the same elements of quality leadership that so many others have written about; the difference is that you look at how to organize the elements differently so that they can work effectively for organizations. He states: “I believe that the opportunity for the next generation will not be to acquire and implement more technology, but to design the ways in which humans must interact to unleash the basic human capacity for innovation, creativity and transformation. If we can do this, the possibilities are endless.” Consequently, the objective of this book is to innovate leadership as an organizational system.
Edds argues that systemic leadership in organizations will also improve job satisfaction. He is well aware of the statistics that show that most employees are not happy with their jobs; some are basically unprotected, while others are intentionally sabotaging their employees. He states: “No one should ever be ashamed of where they work. For all the rhetoric about people being our most important asset, for the most part, it’s just hot air meant to inspire the workforce. Data shows that reality is very This book is in large part my attempt to give a voice to the millions of smart, hard-working people trapped in organizations where mediocracy rules.” By applying the mindset and tips found in Harnessing Leadership Genetics, organizations can realize the benefits of systems thinking leadership. As Edds states, systems always produce more than the sum of their individual parts. They “take one plus one and create ten.”
Edds’ arguments are compelling because he backs them up by looking at four different organizations and the purpose behind each of their leadership systems. He talks about a manufacturing organization that focuses on servant leadership and employee engagement, a Native American health care system that focuses on relationships, a multinational manufacturing company focused on employee safety. and a school system. He also provides an example of a healthcare organization that shifted its focus from patient care to revenue, with catastrophic results.
Edds highlights the sad truth that most organizations don’t teach their managers and leaders how to lead. To a large extent, these leaders had to figure things out for themselves and, in the process, received feedback and input from their staff to help develop a system that worked for everyone. The success of these organizations demonstrates that systems leadership works and is likely to be the wave of the future.
Citing a Gallup poll, Edds says millennials want jobs they can connect with emotionally and behaviorally, jobs that help them fulfill their desire for a purposeful life with a healthy work-life balance. Employers need to understand that they must create a strong brand for employees to appeal to millennials, or go out of business because they will have no workforce left once older generations retire. Additionally, Edds discusses how workforce engagement stems primarily from a worker’s relationship with his or her manager. Studies show that people don’t quit their jobs; they left blows. Edds doesn’t hold back when he says, “The job of leadership is to let go of the reins that create fear, control and disrespect.”
One way to help employees become involved in the leadership of the company is to stop leaders and managers from solving problems for them. Doing so is disrespectful because it undermines the belief that humans are highly intelligent and capable of solving complex problems. Edds says that instead of being a problem solver, a leader must learn to become a problem framer. They must know how to accurately frame a problem so that their employees can learn to solve problems themselves and experience the satisfaction of doing so. This freedom increases employee esteem, creates a sense of ownership, and makes them feel psychologically safe so that they are motivated to continue to be innovative.
Much more could be said about Harnessing the Genetics of Leadership, but you’ll have to read the book to get Edds’ discussions of how Lean and kaizen apply to systems thinking in organizations, as well as the role of servant leadership in leadership organizations. systemic leadership. , and much more. This book’s new twist on leadership makes it invaluable. All leaders should read this book, then purchase a copy for everyone in your organization to read, and then gather feedback and ideas from your staff on how to create or transform your own leadership system.