Lean into Connection-Not Control

"chik-fil-A" free AI image from www.craiyon.com

What can we learn from movies like The Boys in the Boat or Chik-Fil-A?

In 2023, a film directed by Goerge Clooney, The Boys in the Boat, about a group of young men who competed at the Berlin Olympics during the 1930s, demonstrates the importance of teamwork. The film suggests powerful motifs surrounding struggle, hardship, trials, and triumphs in the spirit of working together despite difficult odds and overcoming those challenges by helping each other become a single unit. Lessons from the movie are applicable today.

According to Day & Miscenko (2016), who articulate leadership styles, a few that manifest in multiple organizations are the archetype of a talisman or the transformational leader, also known as a style of leadership approach that activates institutional pride, a sense of allegiance to one another and capitalizes on zeal and devotedness (Haidt, 2012, p. 275). In addition, the altruistic or authentic styles of leader influence, or the unpretentious trait leadership style, and the servant as leader, visionary leader, including the rapid adoption of shared-collective leadership concepts, are noticeable, evident, and commonplace in different sectors of the service industry for instance, fast food retail.

If the reader likes chicken sandwiches, the best bang for the dollar and restaurant experience is the too familiar "My Pleasure" response from the Chik-Fil-A friendly, indoctrinated staff that demonstrates in the sit-down dining experience or the long line drive-through culture of service to the guest franchise (Manko, 2022). The leader trait behavior, for example, the grand man theory or the hero archetype, are ways in which leaders show up to influence others (Day & Misenko, 2016) and are styles of leadership that, as scholars have pointed out, have to do with focus on the leader themselves or their character.

In contrast, the available research deals with the study of the leader's relationship with their direct reports, known as the theory of the leader/member exchange. In simple terms, the LMX acronym identifies the study of leader-follower relationships. The available scholarly literature does not restrain the information and articles ready for reading and analyzing leader and follower interactions and connections.

Examples of those character traits for leaders, corresponding to Day and Miscenko (2016), are mindfulness, interpersonal benevolence, a keen sense of awareness of the surroundings or fixated on the environment, open to innovation, and extroverted. Also, as reported by scholars, those work environments that highly respect one another's atmosphere correlates to leaders that employees view as having a high organizational supportive disposition toward their staff.

Why is the interpersonal leader-follower relationship meaningful, and what does the motif of a boat rowing crew from the 1930s and chicken sandwiches have to do with leadership? It's all about the relationship.

We all live in a different time; for reference, when reading this blog post, we all are in the remarkable recovery of post-pandemic life. Furthermore, we still live in the VUCA environment (Sherman, 2024). Read here from an earlier post highlighting the VUCA world. The world and the places we work are volatile, uncertain at times, complex, confusing, and ambiguous.

In recent weeks, for context, the southern California residents and citizens of Los Angeles have been undergoing recovery efforts in their local communities from the devastation of the wildfires. The wildfires were broadcast unrestrained on national news forums and streaming incessantly on social platforms, exacerbating the aforementioned conceptualizations about how people work, especially in the healthcare sector. More than ever, relationships are essential, and the people who work in the service industry have needs that take priority, first and foremost, because they are the people we support, champion, and steward.

As other nursing professionals bring attention to the surface regarding relationships, according to Foster-Smith (2024), the social distancing and the six-foot-apart regulations, coupled with the no-eating-together rules and the mandated masking from the way people worked in the hospital, have brought out the individuality of our natures. A sense of no community and the remnants of social distancing may still impact staff, leaders, and their workplaces. For departments, units, and institutions to thrive, the goal of a relationship-style leadership approach to departmental unity and a team approach to achievement must take precedence over individual success.

As we take the lead from other authors, scholarly insights, practices, and principles, leaders and their teams can lean into relationships (Foster-Smith, 2024) for the benefit of the group, which in turn benefits their units, departments, and organizations. As one heartbeat, all thrive. One body, many parts.

References:

Day, David V., & Miscenko, D. (2016). Leader-member exchange (LMX): Construct evolution, contributions, and future prospects for advancing leadership theory. In Nathan, P. E., Bauer, T. N., & Edogan, B., The Oxford handbook of leader-member exchange (pp. 9-28). Oxford University Press. https://archive.org/

Foster-Smith, R. (2024). The significance of relational leadership. Nursing Management, 55(12), 56–56. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmg.0000000000000202

Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Random House Inc.

Manko, B. (2022). Analyzing an unconventional success story of Chick-fil-A fast food restaurants in the USA. Management, 26(1), 118–143. https://doi.org/10.2478/manment-2019-0087

Sherman, R. O. (2024). Upskilling your nurse leaders. Nurse Leader, 22(5), 484–485. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2024.07.007