“Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth”, according to one authority on the subject. Most observed because many of us wish to become better leaders. Least understood because conclusively defining the qualities a leader must exhibit is not an easy task. If anything, observations from the past teach us that the greatest leaders tend to show wildly diverse traits and characteristics.
Regardless, experts have distilled a number of core qualities said to aid good leadership. From his observations on the subject, leadership author Warren Bennis remarks that successful business leaders of the past “paid attention to what was going on, determined what part of the events at hand would be important for the future of the organisation, set a new direction, and concentrated the attention of everyone in the organisation on it”. In essence, Bennis argues that successful business leaders possess stellar awareness, show astute judgement and vision, and are able to inspire or demand the focus of their people.
So, let’s take Bennis’ qualities of good leadership and imagine a business led by those who lack such traits.
This imaginary business would first and foremost be ignorant. Without an in-depth awareness of what is going on, either inside or outside of the organisation, the business would be unable to see or react to the issues, problems, challenges or opportunities that it faces. Through blind ignorance the business would quickly suffer. Internally the business would fail to progress on many levels; for example, it would be unable to identify correct training needs, tackle operational inefficiencies, or pursue key innovation objectives required to improve its product or service offerings. Externally the business would fail to quickly and properly react to changing environmental circumstances, such as the numerous effects of the recession, or the impact of changing competitor behaviour, and so on. In short, the business would be ignorant of the very things it needs to know.
As a consequence of this ignorance the business would lack judgement, and thus have a hard time setting its direction and defining its vision. Business leaders – ill-informed to what is going on – would have little choice but to set their direction and vision based on guesswork. While it is true that visceral instinct plays a part in leadership, such judgement-calls are usually based on some level of underlying intelligence and awareness. Without such knowledge the business would be pushed forward in a dangerously ill-conceived direction.
At this point the business’s leaders must attempt to focus minds onto following their direction and realising their vision. They must, in essence, ask people to follow a plan born from ignorance and poor judgement. And of course, many of their followers are likely to have a deeper awareness of what is going on than the leaders themselves. So, rather predictably, those being led are left frustrated, demotivated and unwilling to follow a direction so ill-conceived. Ultimately this dynamic creates a tussle between top and bottom so damaging that the leaders lose credibility, everyone else loses inspiration and commitment, and the business loses direction.
Harsh words – but our intentions are merely to illustrate the effects of poor leadership so that leaders can be wise to such traps and ultimately improve. Bennis’ traits of good leadership are qualities which can be taught; in the coming months we hope to delve deeper into the question of how leaders can improve, so stay tuned.
More info – Lead and motivate your staff
More info – Upskilling your workforce access a grant of up to £1,000
0 Response to “Bad leadership”