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The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

—Theodore Roosevelt

An effective leader is not an autocrat. The best leaders who build the most support and achieve the most lasting success are those who understand the power of organizations and, more importantly, the power of individual people. In creating effective organizations, these leaders know how to harness the talent and will power of each individual person so that the end product is something of great quality with the entire organization sharing in its success.

It may be the case that the previous generation of workers was disillusioned and cynical enough to accept a top-down leadership through tyranny, but the “Generation Y” workers in their twenties today don’t have the same roots or opinions. Being a Gen-Y leader is more about the stronger social ties and idealistic undertones of this generation. People from this generation expect to be treated as equals and, as individuals, tend to have their priorities much more in order than previous generations. It’s much harder to get a young worker to burn the midnight oil without some direct, honest and tangible reward. We aren’t “heads down” workers who will slave away at the hopes of a promotion—it’s much more likely that we’ll simply switch jobs to a company that treats us better or start freelancing and managing our own talent.

This change becomes a significant issue when young people go to work for people of the previous generation or people bred with the values of the previous generation. Unfortunately, there are young leaders today who, just like many Gen-X leaders, have fantasies of becoming glorious autocrats, leading their flock into competition with the vast forces of evil. Moving forward, it’s clear that this mentality is hopelessly outdated and infeasible in the US knowledge worker arena. Instead of the workers staging some great revolution or creating stockpiles of passive aggression, they will simply leave. There are enough companies today that support the type of sane work/life balance that Gen-Y thrives on for people to simply move on and live a better life. The ratio of these types of companies will only increase as more Gen-Y entrepreneurs carve out their visions of well-functioning companies, leaving even less room for the tyrants.

Aside from just predictions and observations, though, it’s important to understand how to breed a better culture and respond competitively to this change in structural mentality. Essentially, becoming a good leader is (and will continue to be) something that is evolved on the basis of merit—those who are enablers, communicators, organizers and visionaries. Using the talents and support of colleagues by showing respect and promoting collective responsibility will give leaders the power necessary to succeed and compete on a large scale. “Running a company” is much more about finding and sustaining a clear vision, promoting transparency and responsibility, and removing roadblocks to success from the paths of other creative colleagues.

The old draconian office policies about dressing up, “professionalism”, “team players” and guilt-powered motivation are ineffectual and useless. This generation wants work to be something to enjoy as a part of life, not as a necessary evil to be tolerated for decades before a boring retirement. Working now is much more about being real and honest; forget the Puritan politeness and cheesy motivational posters. If getting in a passionate argument or discussion isn’t tolerated at a workplace then no real creativity is being fostered there. People aren’t going to dress up to impress their coworkers or their bosses; they’re going to do awesome work while telecommuting in their pajamas or brainstorming in their hipster-decorated office.

A great leader is someone who understands that life is about living, that the best talent will thrive under the best conditions and that success will be measured by the cooperative output and shared achievement of a talent-filled group of people, not a nameless hierarchy of drones.