You can have strong leadership skills and still undermine your own leadership. This risk applies not only to young leaders but also to leaders who have seen significant success. Ironically, leadership success can create the environment for leadership issues. It is not intentional, but the possibility is real.
Here are some of the ways that leaders can sabotage their leadership and even destroy it.
Ego. This should be obvious, but it isn't always! Success breeds confidence, and that confidence can cause us to overestimate our wisdom and underestimate our need for counsel. This can creep up on us over time without our realizing it until we are no longer open to the input of others, which eventually comes back to bite us. Counterintuitively, the more success we see, the more we need others' insights, because greater complexity often diminishes our awareness of what's happening within our organization. Humility is our friend while ego is our enemy.
Schedule. Good leaders are in demand. That demand can cause us to say yes too often and no too seldom. Busyness wears us down, tires our bodies and minds, and robs us of thinking time and even God. Schedule erosion eventually catches up to us in negative ways. Further, the busier we are, the less quality time we have to spend with our key leaders who make the enterprise successful. In addition, opportunities elsewhere may pull us away from what matters most in our own organization, which can diminish our leadership effectiveness. It is nice to be wanted, but if we are diverted from what is mission critical for us, our leadership suffers.
Entitlement. Successful leaders can start to believe the rules don't apply to them the way they apply to others. One way this often plays out is in behaviors they would not allow others to exhibit but feel they can. This may show up as carelessness in how they treat others with their words or attitudes, or simply taking staff for granted. Because they have positional authority, they often get away with behaviors they shouldn't, but in doing so, they lose their staff's respect. Instead of entitlement, the goal must always be to set a clear example of expectations.
Laziness. Many leaders who saw success in one period of life lose their edge in another because they no longer feel the need to stay sharp, learn new skills, and understand the changing environment around them. This can result from out-of-control schedules or hubris, but whenever we stop being intentional about our own development, we begin to lose our ability to lead well. The truth is that the more success we experience, the more critical it is for us to be learning and growing so that the organization does not outgrow our leadership ability.
Health. This is one I understand, and I have had to become deeply intentional about addressing my own health issues. When we don't, those issues often compromise our energy and our ability to carry out our leadership roles. In the second half of life, leaders must be more intentional if they want to go the distance. This includes physical, emotional, skill and spiritual health.
Growth. Learning and development are lifelong processes. I love the comment my brother made at my father's funeral service. "He was not a perfect man, but he kept getting better." When we lose our intentionality here, others notice, and it sabotages our leadership. This includes growth in areas like Emotional Intelligence, relational intelligence, and our leadership skills. When we stop an intentional growth paradigm, we enter a danger zone. Perhaps the most neglected area of growth is that of our emotional intelligence, which powerfully influences all of our leadership impact.
Clarity. Lack of personal and leadership clarity leaves both our staff and us without focus. No matter how brilliant one is, a lack of focus confuses those one leads and dissipates the energy one expends. Life should be a journey toward ever greater clarity about what we ought to be doing (and alternatively not doing), what our priorities should be (and there should be only a few), and what the target is for our work (without which our staff will lack direction). Clarity is critical, but consistently communicating that clarity is also crucial. Leaders sometimes forget that others cannot read their minds. What is clear to them must also be clear to others.
Ego. This should be obvious, but it isn't always! Success breeds confidence, and that confidence can cause us to overestimate our wisdom and underestimate our need for counsel. This can creep up on us over time without our realizing it until we are no longer open to the input of others, which eventually comes back to bite us. Counterintuitively, the more success we see, the more we need others' insights, because greater complexity often diminishes our awareness of what's happening within our organization. Humility is our friend while ego is our enemy.
Schedule. Good leaders are in demand. That demand can cause us to say yes too often and no too seldom. Busyness wears us down, tires our bodies and minds, and robs us of thinking time and even God. Schedule erosion eventually catches up to us in negative ways. Further, the busier we are, the less quality time we have to spend with our key leaders who make the enterprise successful. In addition, opportunities elsewhere may pull us away from what matters most in our own organization, which can diminish our leadership effectiveness. It is nice to be wanted, but if we are diverted from what is mission critical for us, our leadership suffers.
Entitlement. Successful leaders can start to believe the rules don't apply to them the way they apply to others. One way this often plays out is in behaviors they would not allow others to exhibit but feel they can. This may show up as carelessness in how they treat others with their words or attitudes, or simply taking staff for granted. Because they have positional authority, they often get away with behaviors they shouldn't, but in doing so, they lose their staff's respect. Instead of entitlement, the goal must always be to set a clear example of expectations.
Laziness. Many leaders who saw success in one period of life lose their edge in another because they no longer feel the need to stay sharp, learn new skills, and understand the changing environment around them. This can result from out-of-control schedules or hubris, but whenever we stop being intentional about our own development, we begin to lose our ability to lead well. The truth is that the more success we experience, the more critical it is for us to be learning and growing so that the organization does not outgrow our leadership ability.
Health. This is one I understand, and I have had to become deeply intentional about addressing my own health issues. When we don't, those issues often compromise our energy and our ability to carry out our leadership roles. In the second half of life, leaders must be more intentional if they want to go the distance. This includes physical, emotional, skill and spiritual health.
Growth. Learning and development are lifelong processes. I love the comment my brother made at my father's funeral service. "He was not a perfect man, but he kept getting better." When we lose our intentionality here, others notice, and it sabotages our leadership. This includes growth in areas like Emotional Intelligence, relational intelligence, and our leadership skills. When we stop an intentional growth paradigm, we enter a danger zone. Perhaps the most neglected area of growth is that of our emotional intelligence, which powerfully influences all of our leadership impact.
Clarity. Lack of personal and leadership clarity leaves both our staff and us without focus. No matter how brilliant one is, a lack of focus confuses those one leads and dissipates the energy one expends. Life should be a journey toward ever greater clarity about what we ought to be doing (and alternatively not doing), what our priorities should be (and there should be only a few), and what the target is for our work (without which our staff will lack direction). Clarity is critical, but consistently communicating that clarity is also crucial. Leaders sometimes forget that others cannot read their minds. What is clear to them must also be clear to others.
Listening and dialoguing with staff. The more successful we are, the more we don't actually know about what is transpiring within our organizations. It is called the Iceberg of Ignorance, and it is real. We can think we know because the organization is growing, but the more it grows, the less we actually know. Our position keeps people from telling us bad news; our busyness keeps us from asking questions, and our ego tells us we have a handle on the organization. The antidote is to listen to those around us, ask probing questions, and never assume that we know what is transpiring.
Discipline. No amount of brilliance makes up for a lack of discipline in our lives. Each of these areas requires a disciplined life around key areas of personal health. Healthy habits, intentionally practiced - including the ones noted above- can keep our lives and leadership on track and prevent derailments of our effectiveness.
Discipline. No amount of brilliance makes up for a lack of discipline in our lives. Each of these areas requires a disciplined life around key areas of personal health. Healthy habits, intentionally practiced - including the ones noted above- can keep our lives and leadership on track and prevent derailments of our effectiveness.
