When Managing Employees, What Is The Goal?

Leadership and employee management is well illustrated by a scene in "Cool Hand Luke", a movie with Paul Newman.

The chain gang is out on a long piece of road, throwing shovelfuls of gravel onto the hot tar. It's back breaking work and the cons are only moving fast enough to keep from being beaten by the guards.

Suddenly, Luke starts throwing gravel on the road as fast as he can. One of the cons says "What are you doing Luke, slow down we have all day to do this road". Luke says "The trucks don't come back until sundown. If we finish before the trucks get here, what will they have us do? There's no more road. We'll get to lay down in the grass".

The story works it way up the line of cons, and soon they are all working as fast as they can, and running to the next pile of gravel.

Leaders are guys (and gals) that don't have anything to prove to anybody except themselves. Well managed employees are those who see the benefit they gain by doing what the leader wants done. Everybody wins.