I had a humorous conversation the other night and I figured that this time of year could use a little extra levity, so I’m sharing an expanded version of the conversation here (i.e. geek analysis). The story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (May, 1939 as shared via Pupovac, 2013) is an example of terrible leadership. Wait, what?!
Image credit: Brian
First, the spoiler for those who may have been living under a rock for the last 75 years or so. As the story goes, Rudolph is mocked and shunned for his light-up red-nose that makes him different from everyone else. Until one “foggy” Christmas night. Then when his diversity is recognized as being useful, he is then asked to be a part of the team. He says yes and the rest is history. Bam. “Most-famous reindeer of all” (Marks, 1949 as shared via The-North-Pole.com, 1996).
Okay, so why is this terrible leadership? Because Rudolph only became valuable when his trait was recognized as useful for the team because of a specific situation. He was seen as a tool to get the job done, not a person (yes, I know he’s a reindeer, simile people, simile).
It’s been known for a really long time that good leadership involves relationships in addition to knowledge of the job that needs to get done. All the key theories of leadership assume that good leaders manage relationships with followers (e.g. three skill approach, Katz, 1955; leader-member-exchange theory, Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, 1975; transformational leadership theory, Burns, 1978). Even the overly simplistic maxim “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” implies relationships are important.
Workers aren’t tools, they’re people and people need to be to be treated with dignity and respect. And in the modern world, most expect that treatment. If this happened today, Rudolph may or may not have joined the team because of the way he was treated. More than likely, he would have left for another organization long before he was even asked, or if he was still around, he may have done really shoddy work and those presents still wouldn’t have been delivered even though the right tools for the task were available.
In fairness to Santa though, the original story by May (1939) was written at end of the Great Depression and because so many people were simply happy to have jobs, many leaders assumed workers were tools because they could be quickly, easily and cheaply be replaced, which was efficient for business. As such, many leaders used workers that way. Rudolph got no apology, no thank-you, he was just expected to be happy to have a job.
So what’s the takeaway here?
There’s actually two.
First, make sure that you treat the people around you as people, not tools, even Rudolph.
Second, you never know when those differences are going to give your team and organization a new star, so let them flourish.
References
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
Dansereau, F; Graen, G; Haga, W. J. (1975). A Vertical Dyad linkage approach to leadership in formal organizations. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 13 (1), 46–78.
Katz, R.L. (1955). Skills of an effective administrator. Harvard Business Review, 33(1), 33-42.
Pupovac, J. (2013). Writing ‘Rudolph’: The Original Red-Nosed Manuscript. Retrieved from NPR at: http://www.npr.org/2013/12/25/256579598/writing-rudolph-the-original-red-nosed-manuscript?ft=3&f=1032#con256879513
The-North-Pole.com. (1996). Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. Retrieved at: http://www.the-north-pole.com/carols/rudolph.html