Future of Leadership: Hierarchy vs. Network
By Muhammad Inam
Majority of organizations of the present time are operating in a hierarchical structure with
multiple layers: starting with the frontline or functional layer in the deep bottom, controlled by
the middle management layers, led by the executive layers, converging to the top leadership
position mostly known as the CEO of the company. Although managerial hierarchy has been the
most efficient structure for the success of a goal oriented organization since it defines the roles
by matching their complexity to the capacity of the people taking those roles, yet I have seen a
lot of troubles related to the same structure while working with multiple organizations of greater
business complexity. There was one common misunderstanding behind the unintended outcomes
of hierarchy; the notion of considering the “Position” to be the only component of “Leadership”.
Having a position in a large organization might provide a platform to offer effective leadership
but can never inspire the people as they will be following the person in that position, just because
they have to and not because they want to.
Any organization’s overall dynamics and functionality can be broken down into three quests;
Why, What and How. The inherent problem with the hierarchical structure is that leaders instead
of focusing on defining the “Why”, control the functional staff on doing “What” and “How” as
well. In my opinion, if the “Why” part (the purpose) is clearly defined and transparently
communicated, there should be enough freedom on the “What & How” parts, considering the
amount of evolution the human mind has gone through, especially during the past century. Let’s
take the example of T-Mobile, my current organization. In 2012, the new CEO John Legere
redefined the “Why” for T-Mobile by saying that he wanted to break the status quo (of Verizon
& At&t) in the Telecom world, by giving carrier freedom to the mobile customers. The vision
was named as “Un-Carrier”. It was floated through all the ranks in the company and employees
were empowered to take decisions in terms of deploying the infrastructure in the whole nation to
achieve that collective “Un-Carrier” vision (Feloni, 2016). “What” was done to achieve this
goal? Nationwide expansion plan of T-Mobile’s 4G LTE Network. “How” was it accomplished?
Support groups were created all across nation, consisting of Engineering, Construction, Sales and
Marketing. The plan was self-explanatory and groups were empowered to use company’s
resources in order to provide coverage to more than 300 Million people in the nation. Market
Teams owned the projects and delivered it like they were renovating their own homes. Within a
span of 4 years, the company’s stock increased by 70% and customer base got doubled.
But what happens when there is too much Command and Control, when people are asked “what”
