Well I wasn’t born in trouble.
It’s my adopted middle name.
When you’re running with the devil,
Ya got no one else to blame.
No control
I got no control
You bet I know
No no no
I got no control
Ahhh na na na no control. -Eddie Money
Well…Eddie and I are talking about two totally different things here…read more on that below… so maybe we should go with giving up control… and leave Eddie Money’s story for later.
Leaders who micromanage (aka Control Freaks) do a huge disservice, not only to themselves, but to their organization, and their employees…worse yet, they are often preventing their organizations from growing to its ultimate potential. If your organization is struggling to grow, perhaps the smartest thing a leader can do is give up some control.
Consider pushing decision making down to the lowest possible level. If the organizational leader is making all the decisions, he/she is holding the company back. Push decision making down…always remember it is the leader that is ultimately responsible, but free up some RAM and develop future leaders at the same time by powering down. It’s a win/win.
Following the above advise… leadership must accept that mistakes are going to happen. Sharing responsibility with others means things do not always go as planned. Prepare the organization to avoid mistakes by providing clear expectations and offering proper tools and “safety nets” to guarantee success.
Finally, as this decision making culture develops the leader will note…the bench is getting deeper. When a leader is comfortable with giving up control it clearly illustrates trust in subordinates and when leadership accepts responsibility… subordinates, in turn, trust their leaders–and they believe in each other. Invest the time and resources in your people…and it will be clear… as Eddie says…“You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down!”
Eddie Money – No Control – 8/16/1982 – Kabuki Theatre (Official)
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Eddie’s version of No Control: Eddie finished a late 1980 tour and was admitted to a Bay Area hospital, and then disappeared from the public eye for over a year. Initial press accounts reported that the singer was suffering from food poisoning, but rumors soon circulated that his affliction was drug-related.
In 1982, nearly a year and a half later, Money discussed the entire incident with Rolling Stone reporter Greg Hoffman. At a party one night back in 1980, after drinking heavily, the singer snorted a substance on a mirror that was being passed around the room. Money assumed it was cocaine, but it was really a synthetic barbiturate. He nodded off and spent the next 14 hours lying on his leg, severely damaging a nerve. The incident also brought temporary impairment of his kidney function. The ordeal helped Money look at his lifestyle a bit more closely. “I can’t believe I was hanging out with and respecting people who let me lay dying for fourteen hours,” he told Hoffman.
Come Back with No Control
Money’s recuperation and hiatus from the public eye was spent working on a fourth album, released in the summer of 1982. Titled No Control, many of the tracks (especially the title track) explore the demons that had led him down the wrong path. Read More
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