As a leader, is it more important to you that people put in the hours they’re supposed to put in or produce their output on schedule?  Your answer defines your leadership style.

I was once told of an incident where a team of people in an organization had worked long and hard over a week to complete a project.  They had put in evenings and weekend time to finish – and do a great job – by the deadline by Thursday at noon.  They were tired, but they pumped – really excited for all they’d accomplished. Because of all the extra time they had put in, they decided to leave Friday at 3pm to have a bit more time over the weekend.

Come Monday morning, their boss was waiting for them and gave them hell for cutting out early. They were supposed to be at work until 5pm and they weren’t there.  It didn’t matter that nothing happened and they weren’t needed. They were supposed to be there and he watched the clock to make sure they were.

Well, they instantly went from being hyper-motivated and excited to being totally dejected and demotivated.  In those few minutes, their boss killed everything that he had gained from their increased commitment the week before and guaranteed that when the next deadline came, they would never meet it, because they figured ‘why bother?’  And so from that point on, the productivity went down the tubes, deadlines weren’t met and morale was in the toilet because the boss got into a snit about 2 hours they weren’t at their desks when they had already put in 20 extra hours over the preceding week – that they weren’t paid for.

It is simple little choices like this, that every boss makes, that defines their leadership.

In tomorrow’s Leadership180.Net, featuring an interview with Terry Brock, we’ll see inside Skype and find out what choice they make in this type of situation – and what results they get as a result.