The Leadership Dilemma

Does Most Leadership Suck? I'll answer this in the business world I've been involved in.

That's the title of a post "challenge" of John McKenna at Leadership Epidemic. Great question or thought, John.

My view isn't "does most leadership suck" but rather "when does leadership suck?"

Here's my short answer.

Leadership "sucks" when:

#1 The leader doesn't develop strategic, long-range thinking but only responds with a "do what I say or else" attitude to an immediate crisis situation.

#2 The leader uses people simply to advance the aims of the organization and has little regard for personal or professional developement of the people around him or her. I've seen this happen in the non-profit arena.

#3 The leader takes too much responsibility on his or her self and doesn't make others take responsibility. I've been guilty of this.


Okay, now the longer answers.

#1 An organization where I worked had a sudden change in presidents. It was a non-profit where for a few years there had been jockeying of power to replace the founder. An outside person was chosen but then had to step down because of inappropriate advances toward a key employee he had hired. The founder's son finally had the chance to take over and immediately announced that if people didn't like how he was going to run things then they could leave.
I might add, this was a Christian organization.

#2 It's distressing when the organization uses people to advance its own aims. Perhaps it's understandable in the business world when corporations are fighting for market share, etc. But building long-term value in any organization requires a respect for the people power available to you.

Okay, another non-profit where I worked served families. And the leaders, both paid and board members, were glad to have parents share their stories on how the organization was a benefit to them. However, there was no reimbursement of time or travel expenses for the parents. The push was to add activity in order to attract funding.

In my mind, the people were being used to advance the aims of the organization.

#3 Taking responsibility. Okay, I can look back to a time when I had other people reporting to me and I covered for their faults or weaknesses and took it upon myself. Or the time when starting a business and having someone else who wanted an equal share but didn't have the money to be sustained during the start-up phase. I "generously" gave up my shares early on and never got paid back. But in the meantime, I took on too much responsibility for the success or failure of what we were doing and felt like I was responsible for the other's income.

I should have said, "look, if you can't sustain yourself during this period then let's work out some other situation until we build a client base where you can take on an equal share. But until then, don't put the pressure on me." Eventually, I felt like the rise or fall of what we setting out to achieve was resting all on my shoulders. Big mistake of mine!

Thanks to John McKenna at Leadership Epidemic for raising this thought-provoking topic.

When do you believe leadership "sucks"? But more importantly, share times when leaders succeed and inspire from your real-life situations. We can learn from both.