Leadership ... What it is not!

I love to observe and assimilate information about a lot of things. People and concepts. Leadership is one of those concepts.

One of my favorite chapters in my book Lead That Thing! (2020) is one that illustrates various leadership faux pas scenarios. In fact, it was the first chapter I wrote. It was a way to vent, it was a recollection of so many bad experiences, and it was an avenue for catharsis.

As I've mentioned in the book, I've learned from both good leaders and bad leaders in my career. The latter have taught me the importance of self awareness and EMPATHY!

I talk about empathy every chance I can get because it still seems to be a hugely missing element in literally every context of life.

We've meme-ified the "Be kind. You never know what people are going through" sentiment to the point that we've almost de-sensitized people to it. Almost. Those that have even an ounce (if I had to choose a unit of measure) of emotional intelligence will pick up on it. The others will simply scroll past it.

As someone who tries to find a silver lining in even the most sh*tty situations (because otherwise it would be very hard to survive), I hope we can change this crisis ... one person at a time. Empathy isn't necessarily contagious. I wish it were that easy but it is not always reciprocated. However if we, as individuals, decide that we want to be a better person/leader, we can start to shift our mindset in favor of empathy. We shouldn't see this a form of weakness. It actually makes us stronger, respected leaders, and it improves the quality of our relationships.

Moving on from the topic of empathy, let's looks at some of the other common leadership mistakes. Here's an excerpt of of the chapter called, "Leadership ... What it is not!"

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Chapter 9 - Lead That Thing! (Krishnan, 2020)

Leadership is still a relatively subjective term. Its definition varies by culture, industry, and occupation.?

Some forms of "leadership” are nothing more than toxic and unhealthy for the people being subjected to that agony. A recent study by DDI, a Leadership Consulting firm, revealed that about 57% of employees left their job due to a bad manager. Luckily, there are also more forward-thinking styles of leadership where people’s morale and motivation stay intact and are more often elevated.

Throughout my career, I have seen a few flavors of leadership gone wrong.

1. Get stuff done at any “cost”
2. Leadership fueled by insecurities
3. Passive and never challenges the status quo
4. Great technical expert, weak leader
5. Never questions/challenges the Executives’ ideas

Let’s look at each of these categories in detail.

Get stuff done at any “cost”

Some leaders feel that their success is defined by how much they get their team to deliver. With this goal in mind, they sometimes lose sight of all the other factors that should be considered when running a project or organization. This includes things like maintaining a positive environment for their teams,? allowing for a work-life balance, and building a healthy team dynamic through empowerment.

The consequences of this approach is a lack of trust, loyalty, and respect for the leader. In reality, the team does not consider that approach as “leadership” at all! This makes them move on to other opportunities where they are more likely to be valued.

Leadership fueled by insecurities

In my experience, both in and out of the workplace, I noticed that most overtly “bossy” people inevitably have some deep-rooted insecurities. They use this bossy facade as a way to protect themselves i.e. a defense mechanism of sorts. Leaders with this issue are less likely to be open to ideas, tend to shut down ideas from others, and take things personally when people do not accept their ideas.

A combination of all those symptoms mentioned above makes the workplace an extremely undesirable place to be. This in turn leads to the company losing some very talented? resources.?

Passive and never challenges the status quo

Whenever I hear a leader say, “That’s the way we’ve always done it”, I cringe. It is a red flag that the leader is not open to change and is not comfortable challenging an outdated culture. As much as I hear the words, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, I find it hard to believe that a true leader cannot influence that change one person or team at a time.?

I have witnessed dramatic changes in culture with the key factor being a strategy that is bought into by the top executives.? As long as a leader can devise a strategy that better positions a company in terms of growth and health, there is always hope for change. This message can then be trickled down to the various levels of the organization. The strategy becomes more of a requirement than an option. This is very likely to make a lot of people uncomfortable, but that is the nature of organizational change.

A leader that simply sits back and doesn’t even try to change dysfunction in an organization that is visible in plain sight, cannot genuinely call themself a leader. I believe the apt word for such leaders is “Enablers” i.e. enabling a bad culture to propagate itself.

Great technical expert...weak leader

Have you ever watched the show “The Office”? The lead character, Michael Scott, plays a top salesman turned manager. He turns out to be a completely incompetent manager who doesn’t garner any respect from almost all of his subordinates and has no clue how to professionally lead his branch.? Although Michael is a fictional character, there is some truth to how his character is depicted.

Just because a person excels at their technical craft does not automatically imply that they possess the skills to be a leader. A mentor or coach, maybe, but not a leader. Companies often overlook this when they promote their resident experts into a leadership position. This creates a mess for the teams that they lead. They are unable to make decisions, challenge others or back up the team in tough times. The company itself would be better off with them being in their technical role until they are coached, mentored and ready to be a leader.

Never Question/Challenge the Executives

Executives are very much in tune with the direction of the company and the strategies. The success of a company starts with strong executives that are dynamic and are fully aware of the changing market climates. It is rare for them to have a pulse on the day-to-day operations of the company. They depend on their direct reports and leaders on the ground to be transparent about risks and issues they foresee with work that is being done for the company.

Leaders that are more intent on scoring points with the executives rather than painting an accurate picture for them to make decisions that are best for the company are doing a disservice to their executives, departments and teams. This behavior demonstrates a lack of backbone and inability to do the right thing for the company as a whole. These types of leaders do not realize that the executives depend on them to be honest and expect those leaders to challenge them, when appropriate, rather than being robotic “Yes, (Wo)Men” or “Brown Nosers”.

Have you had experiences with “leaders” with the characteristics discussed above? How did it impact you and your view of leadership? Hopefully recognizing that these are faux leaders now gives you hope for your career journey and growth as a leader.

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For more on developing good leadership skills, learning from natural leaders, and interviews with CEOs and VPs in the area, check out Lead That Thing! (Krishnan, 2020) on Amazon.com