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Dehumanized Leadership
The Dark Side of Reskilling and a Potential Solution
There are many cogent and convincing arguments for reskilling. Many authorities believe that this is the mainstay of the future of work, or a real way to upgrade the future of low wage earners. Others argue that reskilling is also a tool to empower employees, or a way to prepare the workforce of the future. While all of these arguments make sense, they also have a dark side. They obscure the fact that humans are not circus animals, and that circus animals don’t work because they want or need a job. Though we all appreciate acquiring skills to make a living, making someone good at serving you is a double-edged sword. At best, it’s a dubious way to lead and akin to being a ringmaster or slave owner.
Ringmaster leadership: You might be clued-in to the questionable altruism behind “reskilling” and “ringmaster leadership” when you hear people at the tail-end of their careers complain that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. When applied to humans, the dark shadows of “training”, “reskilling”, and “upskilling” begin to emerge. Eventually, these words and idioms may make their way into what I call “the slavery lexicon”, and they lead people away from their own power and autonomy and toward a more masochistic, dependent, and disempowered way of being as well.
