Don't Drive ....Motivate

"Driven" ... I hear this more often now than ever ... why is this and what does it mean.

I see this as a symptom of our captivation with technology .. our tech capture and the "technologisation" of people by data ... the need to measure and control ... to drive ourselves and others as if we were machines.

Today leadership and management is about data management and people (if there are people) are driven via data. People are nothing more than resources ... a set of KPIs on dashboard dial and driven as if they were automobiles. There is no soul in a machine ... a dashboard dial doesn't have an inner life, it's simply a dependent variable indicating responses to management stimulation. 

Data has reduced people to laboratory rats - soft machines ready for replacement by real machines as soon as possible.

Leadership and management has been replaced by technique and technocrats more comfortable with "well oiled machines" and data than they are with people - algorithms and data are a convenient comfortable way to make decisions without judgement. 

The problem with being driven by data is that its like doing makeup while driving using a rear view mirror ... it might make you look good and its great at showing you where you have been but its no use for showing you where you are going or where you want to go ... it's dangerous.

Data driven behaviouristic leadership and management is only skin deep - if you treat people like machines then they will behave like machines ... "jobsworths", working to rule only capable of what they have been programmed to do - expect and get nothing more.

The problem with data driven leadership and management is that people aren't machines, they are more than simple dependent variables - they have their own minds and it is their independence, diversity and autonomy that makes valuable.

Treat people as people and they will behave as people ... they will "go the extra mile", they will be flexible, creative, imaginative, excited and inspired. Don't drive people but motivate them .. inspire them with vision, passion, enthusiasm and excitement and they will give this back.

Leaders and managers - if you behave like a soulless machine then you deserve to be replaced by a machine and you will be - for the good of your people and for yourself ... be a person.