Accidental leaders - Telltale signs

Most of us have , at some point in our careers, worked with / under, competed with, or silently suffered such leaders in places we have worked . For the lack of a better phrase, I call them ‘?accidental leaders’, wrong people at the right places at the right time, an unfortunate phenomenon that often occurs in the contemporary professional world where such characters manage to sneak up past unsuspecting filters, sometimes by default and sometimes by dubious design. While most accidental leaders have a fairly limited shelf life and get exposed sooner or later, there are some who master the art of survival, especially in large organizations where they construct an effective support structure for themselves with the right political maneuvering and crony culture , signing themselves up in like-minded lobbies and running fiefdoms of their own where they groom future accidental leaders like themselves, thus rendering the larger organizational objectives ineffective as they go about their own agenda year after year, getting promoted and earning fat bonuses while the company silently hemorrhages .

The problem with such leaders is not restricted to them alone. The mere presence of such leaders in an organization ejects good people out of the system (‘no point in wrestling with a pig in the mud’?) and also corrodes the entire competitive DNA of the organization where the organizational aspirations are diluted, manipulated and tweaked to suit the incompetence of the leadership. Such teams then trade growth for costs, talent for sycophancy and disruptive innovation for impotent status quo. Remember James Taggart from “Atlas Shrugged”?? Yeah, so you get the drift of the breed I am talking of.

As per me, the following are the top five behaviors that you come across in businesses or organizations where there is a successful?accidental leader?lurking somewhere at the top and who is influencing the culture down the line –

1.?????????Lack of candor?– Great leaders are approachable people who respond with candor when communicated to. They reply to emails, take calls and are reachable within permitted windows of their calendars for people who reach out to them. Accidental leaders don’t see this as a necessary leadership trait at all. They respond only when something appeals to their self-interest. They are either scared of saying ‘?no?‘ to anyone, lest it questions their competence ( and further validates a deep seated self-doubt in them ), or even a ‘?yes’ to anyone outside their coteries for the fear of inviting a rebellion in their ranks.

2.?????????Lack of spine?– I would have preferred to use another word , but ‘spine’ sounds nice , safe and censored. One of my ex-bosses ( a gold standard badass ) had once counselled me when I was in a dilemma whether I should rate a top performer way above the others in an otherwise average team, or should I keep him just somewhere around the mean. He had said simply – “?A , only someone who has scored 10/10, has the guts to give someone else a 10/10. A spineless and meek leader who has never scored beyond a 6/10, will never be secure enough to rate a team member a perfect 10..”? End of story ! Accidental leaders on the other hand love the law of averages. They can never reward generously enough, nor punish ruthlessly enough. Did someone just mention ‘ meritocracy’ ? Well,???? !!!

3.?????????Lack of transparency?– Having risen and survived in the system through alternative means and not by linear performance, accidental leaders abhor a culture of open communication. They are control freaks who love to audit and limit the flow of information. They prefer boundaries and silos and unending layers of bureaucracy to segment & hide information , keeping only a part of the whole picture visible to each silo. This then has a ripple effect down the lines where a hush-hush culture is encouraged while transparent team members are snubbed and side-tracked

4.?????????Lack of domain expertise?– Accidental leaders are floaters who are often engaged in a full time job of managing up and around, resulting in lack of domain depth that they never get to cultivate. As a result, their understanding of every sphere of business is superficial, skewed and flawed. This insecurity then makes them recruit and groom people who are even less competent than them. This collective lack of competence then shows up in the form of cut-copy-paste brand of technological innovation , sloppy closure of commercial contracts & shoddy execution of projects, resulting in a consistently plummeting goodwill in the marketplace which they valiantly deny by conducting feel-good internal surveys ( disguising them as VOCs) and broadcasting what a great job they are doing , till a day comes when they are exposed. But not before eroding the brand equity of the business or organization to a severe extent.

5.?????????Lack of ROR ( reward-on-risk)?– Accidental leaders are risk averse people who play a safe game of survival and who rarely play to win. They would rather throw their energy behind penny-wise low value initiatives and dress them with fancy PPTs to conjure a false self-worth for themselves and their stakeholders . Outliers and original thinkers who love challenging the status quo and taking risks, are ridiculed and discouraged till they are choked & frustrated and forced to jump ship.

These, as per me , are the common denominators of accidental leaders. If you need to spot one in your organization, try looking for the following telltale signs . Accidental leaders are often guilty of many, if not all of the following traits –

1. Dropping names ( “?You know – It’s not me but my boss’s boss in Houston who wants you to submit this report by Saturday..”).

2. Discuss people, and not issues (“?I hate to be telling you this, but we need to be really careful of X. I think hiring X for the role was a bad decision. He is so bloody dumb..”)

3. Encourage silos (“?Be careful you do not mark Sally in your reply. We should not allow every team member to be privy to all information about this subject..”)

4. Whine (“?I really hate it when such quarters come along. I mean, what are you guys getting paid your salaries for??”)

5. Use ‘I’ for taking credit , ‘you’ and ‘they’ for blames ( “I?closed the sale” ; “?You?screwed up the execution ” ; “?They?have no clue how to do business”).

6. Conspire ( “?You know, we need to start building a case against John. Let’s start documenting minute details every time he makes a mistake. We need to make sure he is ejected before Q3 ends?”)

7. Disrespect peers (“?You know what, Jim got to be my equivalent in the company simply by sucking up to that pansy boss of his !”)

8. Make fun of competitors ( “?Ah, don’t let’s talk about that organization. That’s just an assembly of idiots who have no clue of how to stay relevant in this market !”)

9. Play favorites (“Actually, once I have seen how Serene made her presentation, I do not even need to look at anyone else’s, because I already know they are all going to be below par..”)

10. Make false commitments externally to avoid pain (“?Let’s sign the contract now. I promise you that I shall look into issuing a credit note later for the transportation overcharge?.. ”)

11. Make false commitments internally for short term gain ( “Okay I hear you. First you do as I say . And I might even recommend you for the department manager’s role in January..”)

12. Gossip ( “Obviously Paul won’t show up on a Thursday evening. He would be out with that green eyed lass who is cheating on her husband..”).

13. Discriminate and hold prejudice (“Sorry but I cannot trust an Asian guy, especially when he is gay..”)

14. Count pennies (“I have been seeing your travel expenses. I don’t see why you needed to take a flight on Monday morning when you could have taken the train on Sunday afternoon.”).

15. Micromanage ( “Hey Sam, could you please peep into his cubicle and check if Justin is in office yet or not ??“).

16. Discourage team spirit (“Bill, treat this as confidential, but I need you to slowly start raising your stature & I would expect a display of ‘management maturity’ from you, meaning – please stop being so pally with your peer group. This is your workplace, not your university campus.”)

17. Have questionable integrity (“Why can’t you recommend the client company director for a ‘training session’ in Thailand and sponsor a Phuket weekend for him ? Why do I have to teach you everything ?”)

18. Employ threats (“I don’t know how you do it, but if you don’t – then you can start looking for a job !”)

19. Keep people, especially below them in the organization, waiting (“?Sorry guys I am 30 mins late for the call, but I was in a meeting with our Product line VP from Atlanta, & as you know, he is a big guy after all ”).

20. Not respond to emails, or return calls – especially from those below them in the professional value chain ( “?Aah come on ! You cannot expect a senior leader like me reply to an email from just another stranger, would you??”)

21. Treat company employees as their own (“?When I ask him to do something, even if that’s beyond his Job Description , he must still bloody well should do it. After all, I hired him?!”)

22. Treat company property as their own (“?Yes I know we ordered the promotional stuff for the dealers . But please keep aside some of the T Shirts. No need to give them all away..”)

23. Be full of themselves (“?I know this is YOUR annual appraisal, but you need to understand how people like me have risen in this company. Let me explain to you with examples how I manage to stay ahead in this race..”)

24. Have different metrices for self and others (“I know we are in the midst of a cost cutting month, but I have to fly business class as I need to be alert for a morning meeting on the next day. ”)

25. Insulate layers above and below them ( “Boss?– You actually should not talk to my team, as that will undermine my importance in their eyes..”…..”Guys, make sure your clients do not speak to anyone above me. After all you know what an idiot my boss is..”).

26. Have whimsical & ego-driven favor scales (“?This is MY team, and I decide who should succeed and who should not , and how !”)

27. Breed distrust (“?Can you find out if Tim is still in touch with his friend in the competitor company ?”).

28. Use non-parliamentary language, either in serious or in light hearted banter (“I cannot decide if Jen’s work is more sexy, or if she is !” ; “This is the last time I am warning you, next time you can bet , I shall f*ck your happiness..”)

29. Surround themselves with Yes-People (“?So what if Bill is not smart. He doesn’t move a finger without consulting me. That’s exactly how I like my direct reports to behave. Keeps them in control”)

30. Make others do the dirty work ( “Hey Aaron, could you please start weekly performance reviews with Matthew ? Make sure you schedule it for a late hour on Fridays. That should make him jittery. I want you to fix him..”)

?-------------------------------------

(An excerpt from a chapter in my book, 'As You Life It')

My new book, 'Once upon a someone', a collection of 55 contemporary short stories, is out & available on Amazon in your country.