3 Signs Your Leader Has A Wishbone Not A Backbone
Joshua Miller
Master Certified Executive Leadership Coach | Linkedin Top Voice | TEDx Speaker | Linkedin Learning Author ?? Coaching Fortune 500 leaders by upgrading their MINDSET, SKILLSET + PERFORMANCE
Funny thing about trust: So many want it...So little deserve it...And so few can maintain it.
We put our careers in the hands of strangers with the hope and promise that they will take care of us and develop us professionally but that's simply not always the case. Employee's for the most part trust their leaders - many times implicitly without any hesitation...that is of course until it's broken.
"When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective." Stephen R. Covey
There's nothing more disappointing then the moment you realize your manager or leader isn't who you thought they were. It's disheartening when you so badly want to believe your leader has your back only to find out that they simply aren't capable or simply don't want to. I wrote about a similar leadership topic previously titled 11 Ways To Spot Authentic Leadership but todays article is a little different.
Coaching and support regarding poor management and weak leadership is the number one request I receive every week from within my network on Linkedin. So much so that I decided to take these requests, compile them and write this article. Here are the 3 warning signs your leader may not have your back:
They Suddenly Have Amnesia
I get that people have moments of memory lapse but there's a point in which being overly forgetful is no longer an accident and now a habit. Integrity is everything as a leader of people. Your word is invaluable which is why I was disappointed to hear how many people experienced their leader forgetting something that they openly said either in public, online or in confidence. This sudden case of amnesia has a direct impact on their people's confidence to confide in them and ultimately impacts their ability to do their job. This showed up with: claiming ideas that weren't their own, not allowing someone time off who had properly earned it and the number one was forgetting to revisit a conversation around development and/or a promotion. None of these bode well in the eyes of an employee.
They Can't be Direct
It's one thing to be direct, it's an entirely different thing to be cowardly. Everyone I spoke with on this topic had simply wished their leader would've had the courage to speak the truth versus sugar coating it or outright lying about it. It takes confidence to lead but it also takes transparency. If you can't be direct then say nothing until you can. No one likes the feeling of being pushed aside. This showed up with: not approving an employee's promotion, discussing the state of their organization or team and the number one was having to let someone go.
They Are Not Accountable
Having a leader who says one thing and does another is simply bad optics. Not showing up, either on time or in the office sends the wrong message to your people especially if you discuss how important it is culturally to present in the office. It starts with you and if what you are showing is the opposite of what you want then to get upset with your people is a double standard. Leaders who avoid being responsible have a way of letting their people slide which ultimately ends bad for everyone involved. Being a leader is a full-time role not a part time hobby. This showed up with: being absent when deadlines are most critical (and then only to show up when it's passed), they push off meetings that are important to you, and the number one was simply over promising and under delivering time and again.
- Watch the first 1:30 seconds of this hilarious video, you will see all of the qualities play out in this clip from Curb.
Final thoughts: No one is saying you have to be the best leader in the world but you should strive to be the best version of yourself. You owe that to your people and the organization. If your best version is still not enough, then consider getting some support. For the employee, if you've been under served, under appreciated or simply thrown under the bus, you have a choice as well and owe it to yourself to change your situation. Here is a great article outlining the essential qualities to look for in a great leader.
The floor is yours: Can a leader be successful with low EQ?
Please leave your comment below as your insights are greatly appreciated and a learning opportunity for everyone reading this article.
With leadership,
Joshua / www.JoshHMiller.com
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Other recent and popular posts from Joshua Miller: 11 Ways To Spot Authentic Leadership ? 15 Things You Should Never Apologize For ? 10 Traits Highly Confident Women Exude ? How To Cultivate Happiness Like The Dalai Lama ?5 Steps To Removing Negative People From Your Life ? 7 Phrases That Kill All Brainstorming Sessions ? 6 Reasons Why You Should Join A Mastermind Group ? How To Improve Your Executive Presence And Command A Room ? 8 Types Of Coworkers Who Can Derail Your Productivity
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7 年You’ve sparked my interest, Joshua. Where did you learn about this?
Manager, Ferris Printing Services at Ferris State University
7 年What a great article Joshua Miller - it's so pointed and accurate. Of course, you've heard the phrase that getting to the correct answers requires asking the right questions - I think your question below of why is this still so prevalent is a good one. Beth Flickinger's reply that people in leadership positions don't WANT to know anything that's wrong - they just want everyone to be happy and do the job put before them. One could say that it's a capitalistic mentality (and perhaps it is at a high level) that the profits or bottom line are what the goal is. While I understand that, I think we've increasingly lost sight of the fact that profits rely on many more intangible things - things that cannot be measured. The 'soft skills' are getting rarer and they aren't able to be measured or reported. So how do leaders monitor the easily track-able things like profitability or output and also keep an eye on the intangibles such as employee engagement? When I've been what I previously termed manager - I found it quite important to lay out tangible and intangible goals. I've worked with people who were loners and didn't get along with others and worked through some tough situations successfully by employing soft skills that I might not even be able to teach someone else. At the same time, I worked for leaders who didn't want to hear how I thought things could be done differently or better - leaders who didn't value or recognize what I had done. It doesn't take long for a leader to shut someone down - but it takes a lot to get someone to trust you enough to tell you what they think repeatedly. Not only in business, but on a personal relationship level, people don't want to do the hard work it takes to build something successful for the long term. So why do these companies exist, succeed and seem to becoming more common? I wonder if it isn't the impermanence of life our society views? What I mean is this: not very long ago, businesses were started with an eye to longevity. Men/people started businesses envisioning leaving those businesses to their children and their grandchildren. Historically even high political leadership was based upon the idea that one's heirs would inherit what one had built. Times seem different now. Companies either 'go public' and seem to lose 'familial values' in favor of only profits. I know of fewer and fewer privately held companies who will be passed on to heirs - and even those are often focused only on profits. Focusing only on tomorrow's profits rather than long-term success likely drive such mind-sets to do what is easiest, quickest and gets one the fastest return. I think, increasingly, people from the top down are not focused on long term. Employee turnover is higher and higher because one can always get another person to fill a spot. It sure seems like the opposite of what we should be doing but I think that's why it's happening I remember the Great Law of the Iroquois that says something about in every deliberation considering the effects on the next seven generations. We don't even think of success within 1 generation anymore let alone consider 7 generations.
Co-Founder EcoCycle365 Token - Depin /Defi
7 年Joshua, great article ... What I dont understand is how companies with such leadership chug along .... I have seen a lot of companies with such leadership chug ging along ......