Are there “bad” leaders?
I often hear employees cite “bad leadership” as the reason they don’t like working for their company. When I’m hired to diagnose a broad problem within an organization, this is also the catch-all phrase used to describe executive team members who are deemed capable but “problematic.”
Inevitably, the actual issue has nothing to do with “good” or “bad” leadership, but more the “basics” of leading. It’s easy to conflate how we feel about someone’s personality, style or sensibility with how they perform their duties as a leader. They’re different.
Here’s a quick review of my leadership fundamentals. Of course there are so many other elements to leadership - charisma, emotional intelligence - and my favorites, the ability to be wrong, accept feedback and have candid conversations. However, a person can be a capable, effective leader even without these appealing qualities.
The five essential responsibilities of leaders are to clearly set expectations, provide the tools necessary to achieve those expectations, remove any obstacles in the path to those expectations, support the team in their efforts to strive for them and compensate the team for the value they bring.
I’ll put these in bullets for clarity, because it’s that important!
(Remember, true leaders do these five things, whether you like them as people, or not.)
Leaders set clear expectations so everyone knows the goal.
Leaders provide the systems, platforms or resources to achieve the goal.
Leaders remove barriers to accomplishing the goal.
Leaders are cheerleading while providing accountability to goals.
Leaders demonstrate appreciation through compensation for goals met.
If you’re reading this and you lead, give yourself an audit on these fundamentals.
If you’re under the wing of a leader, investigate whether these points have been made clear.
It’s easy to get caught up in poetry when reacting to what is really more akin to math. And while I can’t say enough about self-awareness and introspection, all good leadership includes these five basics.
Leaders set the pace, identify mile markers, provide hydration and clear the traffic. They are also ready at the finish line with flowers, applause and brand new kicks for the next race.
Hi Y’all - from Dallas this week…
Reply to this note if it moved your needle in some way. Your feedback keeps me fueled for my own continued learnings in leadership!
BG