Do you sabotage your own leadership power?
Here are 14 ways that leaders undermine their own power:
- thinking it is their job to be the “smartest person in the room”…
- trying to convince others to like them…caring too much about what others think…
- focusing on their own problems, without concern about the problems of those doing the daily work.
- micro-managing the professionals who they hired to do the job…
- allowing small tasks and problems to preempt big issues…
- expecting others to change, but not themselves…
- spinning the truth in order to manipulate agreement or cooperation…
- arguing with those who are unwilling to be influenced…
- getting in the middle of problems and issues that do not belong to them…
- trying to change the behavior of people who have no intention to change…
- failing to address the poisons of cynicism, apathy, and naysaying when it occurs…
- telling staff that “higher ups” made a bad decision, rather than owning the decision as a member of the leadership team.
- blaming others when things go wrong instead of taking responsibility…
- playing victim, and claiming “poor me” when others disagree…
All of these behaviors lead to disengagement, loss of morale among the people doing the daily work, and adversely affect business quality and productivity. They send a clear message to staff that the leader has no real power. Worse, they undermine the willingness of people to follow that leader, especially when things get tough.
The antidote? Of course, just don’t do these things!
What would you add to this list?
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