Decoding Weak Leadership: Unmasking the Barriers that Limit Effective Management

I beg you. Use your power!!

If you are a person in a leadership role at any organization, I urge you to use your power to do the right things and to help your team and company win WHILE improving the internal conditions and the working environment.

And if you noticed above, I didn’t only say help them to win. Because in a lot of cases winning makes us complacent or makes us ignore a lot of things that should change.

But wait a second, isn’t the opening of this article meaningless?

I mean you could be saying to yourself now ‘’come on Mohamed. I am a leader, and I am using my power and authority. This is common sense’’.

And I will tell you ‘’No. It is not common sense’’.

And yes, maybe you are one of the very very few leaders who are using their power in the right way inside the organization, but I promise you most of the leaders do not use their power. Not only this, but they also act in a very weak and passive way.

But let us first explain what the sentence ‘’use your power’’ means.

To explain this sentence let me ask you ‘’what is the main role of any person in a leadership role no matter what the title is?’’

You can say a lot of things. You can say hiring, training, growing people, budgeting, developing, and achieving results. Etc.

But here is my point. Anything that you say can be summarized in 4 words ‘’consistent change and improvement’’.

The leader should provide the vision and then should strive to help his or her team reach this vision by making them better each day and by making the situation inside the team or the company better daily.

In short, the leader should be driven by making the situation better for his team, the company and of course automatically himself or herself. He or she should aim for Results AND improvements. Together.

There is nothing called improvements only when problems happen, and there is nothing called running a ‘’change initiative’’ occasionally and that’s all.

Leadership equals consistent improvement and change.

Now, let me ask you if you are in a leadership role, are you doing this and is this truly your mindset?

During the past 8 years as a consultant and advisor, I rarely (if ever) had a discussion with a person in a leadership role, and this person inspired me by his or her decisiveness.

I rarely met a leader who said to me ‘’this is my vision. This is where we are going. This is where I am going to take the team (or department), and this is how I will use my power and authority to help my team reach there’’…almost never.

In fact, nowadays when I talk to leaders, I feel that they are here because…they are just here.

Because it was time for them to get promoted or to urgently fill an empty position. Or because someone offered them this leadership position, so they said ‘’Why not?’’, or because of the pay raise…Nothing more or nothing less.

No vision. No clarity. No goals for the team or department OTHER than what the manager above this leader communicates…Nothing.

And if they are trying to do something, they are just trying to do it because of face-saving and to look good in the organization and not because of deep conviction and a true vision.

This is why I find it super IRONIC when I see people in managerial roles complaining or joking about having lots of meetings or having meetings with no real outcomes, or that the processes need to change because they are not helpful...etc.

Guess what?

As a manager, YOU are there to make these changes and to make the situation better.

If you are complaining and the people below you and above you are complaining, then who will use their power and influence to create real change?

STOP complaining and start using your influence and power to change what is happening.

Why are managers not using their power to transform their organizations DAILY?

Because of a lot of reasons. Let me mention 4 of them.

1- A lot of managers do not know how to build their influence within the organization AND how to use it. They confuse their authority over their teams with influence.

As a person in a leadership role, you must build your influence within your organization (and even outside) to get your voice heard and to be able to influence major decisions. ?Influence is crucial and it doesn’t come automatically with the title.

2- A lot of managers do not know how to build powerful connections (especially laterally with other managers and leaders in other departments) that help them become movers and shakers inside the company.

And accordingly, their power becomes limited only to the authority that they have over their team members because of their titles.

In fact, they know ‘’some’’ people from other departments only because there was a project that brought them together, or because of an escalation meeting. And their relationships with others remain until the problem escalated is resolved or until the project is done and that’s all.

And even when they are involved in projects with them, they are blindsided by the agendas and project action items, and they are not really keen on building REAL relationships with others.

You always hear them complaining that they are busy and have tasks that they have to finish. And some of them believe that investing time to learn how to build real connections with others is a waste of time.

And with all due respect, these managers are consistently failing to see the big picture.

What they do not understand is that by focusing daily on their emails and the tasks on their tables, they are NOT BEING Strategic. They are being reactive instead of proactive. They are just moving where the flow takes them.

If you need more information about lateral influence and building connections laterally, you can check this Podcast episode about lateral influence that I created with my co-host Jim Moran several months ago, or reach out to me if you need advice. Press here and choose your favorite platform. The episode is called ''Leadership Uncensored with Mohamed & Jim: Building lateral influence & trust''.

3- A lot of Managers lack clarity themselves and are not clear about what they want. They do not know why they are filling their leadership roles, or they are filling them but for the wrong reasons.

I highly recommend that you read this previous article about clarity by pressing here .

4-A lot of managers believe that what they are doing is just fine and nothing more is needed. And one of the reasons for this is a bias called the ‘’positive illusion’’ bias.

The positive illusion bias influences behavior in 3 ways. One of them is that it drives people to make unrealistic and excessively high assessments of their own abilities, or what is called ‘’the above-average’' effect.

For example, in a survey of nearly one million high school seniors, 70% stated that they had “above average” leadership skills, but only 2% felt their leadership skills were “below average”. (can you believe this? only 2% felt that they were below average).

The above-average effect, lead to several problems in the workplace:

A- Positive illusion makes it hard to evaluate ourselves and to know exactly how we are doing. Accordingly, change (on a personal scale) and change initiatives (on a corporate scale) become very hard to consider and execute.

B- People become reluctant to improve, to ask consistently for feedback, or to ask for support. Because why should they improve if they believe that they are above average? And why should they ask for support, if they do not detect that there is a problem?

If you want to know more about the ‘positive illusion’’ bias and also check the scientific evidence, then I highly recommend that you read this previous article by pressing here .

‘’I am in it for the money and for the future of my family’’.

When I work with executives, I usually ask them an important but simple question that triggers them to think again and reconsider their choices.

Me: ‘’Do you think your son or daughter would love to do your job 20 years from now?’’

The executive: ‘’My daughter will be super happy if I resign right now. Not only my daughter but my whole family.’’

Until this moment, I never asked this question and got an immediate ‘’YES, of course’’ as an answer.

So my question now is simple ‘’With this speed of improving connectivity and globalization. And companies pushed to work faster and to compete fiercely each day. And with the stress levels going up more and more, then what will happen to our kids 20 years from now?’’

And here is another question.

If you -as a leader- believe that your family would love that you resign now because they hate seeing you working extra hours daily, or because you are missing your boy’s football game or your daughter’s singing contest, or that you are pressured and not in the mood because of the problems at work, doesn’t this mean that something is terribly wrong?

And if there is something terribly wrong, then let me ask you AGAIN who will fix it except you?

A lot of people in leadership roles say that they have to make a lot of sacrifices, accept stress, and work extended hours for their families and the future of their kids.

They want their kids to have a good standard of living and they want to be able to finance their education when they go to the university.

But isn’t it your responsibility to solve the workplace problems as well and to prepare it for the day that we hand it over to the new generations including your kids?

Or your kids one day will live in a vacuum, without interacting with other people or facing problems and only with the money that you saved?

Ok, I will move forward with your statement. You are accepting stress and extended working hours because you want your kids to have a good standard of living and to finance their education. Imagine living several years from now, your kid grew up and finished university, and all is good. What is the next step?

Most probably he or she will join a company and start his or her career in tougher conditions than yours because of the accumulated problems of the past years inside companies that remained unsolved because we are not really serious about solving them and because of the rise of technology.

(do you remember the problems and speed of work and connectivity just 20 years ago and before the rise of the internet? Technology is helping but it also causes severe problems that we have to overcome)

But wait a second, what is even the conflict between doing what you are doing for the money and doing the right things at work and transforming the workplace?

You can aim to earn more money and at the same time help your company and team to win WHILE transforming the workplace and having a clear vision that aligns with your values and adds more meaning to your work each day.

Because you will not only feel that you are making more money, but you will also feel that you are building for the future and contributing to something bigger than yourself.

You can even visualize your kids in this NEW work environment that you are contributing to creating vs the current working environment.

And please remember. 30 years ago, I do not remember that I heard my family speak about burnout. Now I hear people speaking about stress and burnout almost everywhere. So what will happen 30 years from now?

If we are not building workplaces for the future and for the next generations, and if we know that we will leave them in a mess and stress which is increasing each day.

And if we know that what they see us doing now, will discourage them from doing our jobs or working in our organizations in the future or worst-case scenario they will join these companies, but they will have to bear severe working conditions especially if they are ambitious. Then what is the meaning behind all that we are doing?

Remember, we all are going to die. And leaving earth a better place than you found it is not a cliché that you can avoid simply by saying to yourself, ‘’I am not doing anything illegal.’’

Sometimes, there are A LOT of legal things that can be 10 times worse than illegal things. Because you do not feel guilty while doing them, and you do not even feel that you are harming others.

P.S.: If you want to listen to a deeper conversation about this topic, then you can listen to my discussion with my co-host Jim Moran by pressing?here ?and choosing your favorite platform. The Episode name is ‘’Leadership on Trial’’.

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I work with leaders and teams as a consultant and advisor...

1- To help leaders, gain clarity, transform their organizations, and amplify their influence, without working extended hours.

2- Boost the performance, motivation, and engagement levels of teams (such as sales teams, marketing teams, engineering teams... etc.).

3- Improve cross-functional collaboration and redesign the workplace culture (especially in cases of restructures, and mergers and acquisitions).

If you need advice regarding any of these topics, send me a message or a direct email:?[email protected]

Website:?www.mohamedhanbal.com