Freedom Incompetence and Leadership
Employees can be particularly effectively demotivated, if you rob them of their freedom. Leaders who cannot resonate with the freedom need of the employee, because they, themselves, are working on their fears by means of control, will not do themselves any favours. As a rule, they never pass on responsibility and don’t really delegate, instead, they constantly practice excessive control. In addition, they usually know everything better themselves, i.e. they think that they do. They prefer discussing matters individually with each employee. In decision-making processes, they incorporate nonsensical loops which make the employees ineffective. Such managers find it difficult, they tend to suspect ‘enemies’ and try to identify ‘friends’.
Often, a fear of failure, or the revelation of their assumed or actual incompetence, lies behind this. To sum it up: a lack of freedom competence usually reduces the effectiveness of teams enormously, encourages adaptation and caution on the side of the employees, and reduces their courage, creativity and performance.