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How “Permission Leadership” Breeds The Fiercest Of All Loyalties
In business and politics
On my first day of work as a young upstart, a colleague pulled me into a conference room to warn me about the company’s unofficial rules.
“Do everything by the book,” he said. “Keep your mouth shut in meetings, and don’t volunteer any brilliant ideas unless you’re given explicit permission.”
The culture at this revered insurance company was one of subservience. A novel idea could land you on the boss’s shit list. Too many of them would get you fired.
But then, fraud hit.
The cultural distaste for creativity and new ideas led to technological inadequacies, leaving us vulnerable to unscrupulous employees.
A management shakeup ensued, and a new boss took over — an outsider who tasked us to come up with solutions.
A week into his tenure, he demanded solutions. None came. We all thought we’d get in trouble since we had never been permitted to share our thoughts before. Slowly, over the next few weeks, we’d throw out ideas, just to gauge the enemy fire.
Some of our novel concepts were terrible, but nobody got in trouble. Instead, he demanded more of them. He even sanctioned a few experiments, some of which failed. Still, nobody lost their job for failing.
It soon became clear. He had given us permission to express our creativity and put our ideas into action without fear of failure. Within a few months, we took bigger chances, suggesting wild concepts that would have been unthinkable under the old regime.
Not only did we feel a sense of accomplishment, but we also revered our new boss, anointing him a god-like status. He had given us freedom, set us free, and we made him our hero.
Permission leadership
My old boss practiced a form of permission leadership — when an authority figure grants permission to pursue a course of action previously frowned upon or discouraged.
Examples include:
- Permitting followers to profess taboo beliefs without fear of rebuke.
- Permitting employees to express their creativity without fear…
