#MiPDV – Leadership Is Not Selfish

It’s always interesting to see how people behave when they think no one is looking.?

The gym is a great place to watch people’s behaviors. Like the person who takes 4 pieces of weight equipment – and places personal items at each – so they can move from one to the next … when they are not texting or talking.?

Or another that carefully and dutifully wipes down a piece of equipment when they are done, but refuses to re-rack the weights they were using.?

Of the one who lays down in the sauna, causing two other people to stand because there is no room for them to sit (want to guess why?).?

And the list goes on and on.?

One day, as I saw all of these behaviors – and more – displayed, I came to a realization: the self-centeredness these people displayed are a great example of what leadership is not.?

Think about the best leaders you have had over your career – what kind of person were they??

Self-centered? Probably not.?

Self-serving? Not likely.?

Oblivious to how they affect or inconvenience those around them? Nope.?

Chances are that the best leaders that come to mind serve their team members. They are often the opposite of what I witnessed in the gym … so much so that I would hesitate to call someone a “leader” if they consistently displayed the self-centered and self-serving behaviors.?

But suppose you have someone in your organization that is in a leadership position and self-centered. What harm could they do??

Plenty!?

In a 2015 article in Forbes , Dan Pontefract says this: ”But it’s the selfish leader – those choosing to lead with a perilous fixation on power, pay and/or profit – that might be causing much of the disengagement and dissatisfaction in today’s organization.”?

He goes on further to state, “As leaders and organizations remain selfish, the collateral damage affects employees, customers, partners and society in general.”?

Think that employee-centered leadership is a new idea? Not as new as we may think – Pontefract quotes form the legendary Peter Drucker with this quote from 1999 (!):

"We will have to redefine the purpose of the employing organization and of its management as both, satisfying the legal owners, such as shareholders, and satisfying the owners of the human capital that gives the organization its wealth-producing power, that is, satisfying the knowledge workers. For increasingly the ability of organizations -- and not only of businesses -- to survive will come to depend on their 'comparative advantage' in making the knowledge worker productive. And the ability to attract and hold the best of the knowledge workers is the first and most fundamental precondition." (Peter Drucker. Management for the 21st Century. HarperCollins. 1999.)

You can read the entire article at

What should you do if you have a self-centered person in a leadership position??

If you’re an employee, the best answer is to try to find a way to move to another team where you won’t have the issue.?

If you’re in a leadership position, perhaps there is a way to neutralize the ill effects of the self-centered leader. ?

But what if moving to a new team is not an option? Two perspectives come to mind:?

First, Special Agent Kevin J. Crawford of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (yep, the FBI!) wrote this in an FBI Leadership Spotlight:

How do workers deal and coexist with such leaders? This is a difficult question to answer. One thing remains certain—the self-centered leader cannot and will not change. Their narcissistic personality and value system has taken shape for years. Perhaps, the best advice for those under the supervision of a self-centered leader is to remember that, ultimately, everyone should strive to work to the best of their ability for personal pride and a greater good, regardless of poor leadership.

You can read his article here: ?

Second, Liane Davey offers four steps that may help:?

1. Make Their Success the Outcome – tie potential success you may have to the leader’s success.
2. Find a Win – reframe situations to appear to be a win for them.
3. Make Feedback Situational – carefully construct your feedback to be a positive for the self-centered leader.
4. Sanity Check – put the customers’ and team's best interests at heart.?

You can read her 2014 article here:

Bottom line, while leaders should serve their team members, sometimes a self-centered person is promoted into a leadership position. It’s just a reality that we all have to deal with. But hopefully senior leadership will realize their mistake and correct the error before too much damage is done.?

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That’s mi punto de vista #MiPDV.

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