Status and org charts

Status is core to human behaviour. It's how we define ourselves in relative importance to others. Who's essential and who's not. Who makes the decisions, who's got choices, and who doesn’t.

Status is core to human behaviour. It’s how we define ourselves in relative importance to others. Who's essential and who's not. Who makes the decisions, who's got choices, and who doesn’t. And as Seth Godin once wrote, "who's up and who's down."

It's apparent in which celebrities we put on pedestals and which brands we wear. It's in our homes, our schools and our workplaces. However, its impact on our workplaces, and more importantly, on our teams, is often ignored.

With a culture of competition that pits people's performance against each other, status is how we choose who gets the promotion.

With a culture of collaboration and community, status is more nuanced but still very much alive. It's how we treat each other, see each other and give each other the benefit of the doubt.

Unsurprisingly, org charts unproportionally distribute status importance, leaving hardworking and essential individuals at the “bottom” feeling powerless.

Great leaders know the importance of status and the role it plays. Understanding and prioritizing it doesn't mean feeding people's egos. On the contrary, it's about truly seeing and valuing each other as equals. When people's sense of importance is reduced, so is their ability to do their best work.

How many can honestly say they see their manager as an equal and feel safe sharing disagreements, thoughts, and ideas with them?

Being higher on the org chart has nothing to do with status. Everyone has a role. Whether a high-performing contributor, lead, manager, director or CEO, the trick is not to confuse role responsibilities with importance.

Choosing responsibility over status is how we get the most out of each other and remain rooted in our humanity.

And as you might have guessed already, being a leader is a role we all get to choose to play. It's how we show up and take responsibility no matter where we are in the archaic org chart design.

One must wonder if the command-and-control individuals haven't received the memo yet. Feel free to send this post to them.

Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.