Transformational Leadership Blog

Welcome to the second post in our Developing Your Character for Leadership series.

Reality check. Leadership is such a difficult task that a lot of people will not willingly accept such positions. If you sought the leadership position you have right now or it was thrust to you, you are duty-bound to your organization and to your members to perform. Since you need to perform anyway, you might as well do it excellently.

What better way to sabotage your leadership by giving up your responsibility.

Giving up responsibility is not like abdicating a throne and installing a new republic in the ashes of a kingdom. Every little decision that you make will tell if you are doing your job or you are actually giving up responsibility.

One of the surefire ways to develop leadership is to look at the wrong practices you are doing right now and changing such practices. The process of improvement is long and sometimes difficult but once you go through that journey, you can certainly turn your organization around.

Are you giving up responsibility by committing these leadership mistakes?

Being the soloist!

Do you usually find yourself doing most of the important tasks of leading and managing? If you haven’t noticed, you actually have team mates, members and followers who are willing to do your bidding. Well, some of them might not be willing to do it but since they are in the organization, they will at least obey you.

You should learn the art of delegating responsibility and tasks. It’s not rocket science. By holding people responsible, you help them develop their potentials and you lower your risk for ulcers and heart attacks due to work demands.

Let’s fly to the moon!

The other end of the soloist is the unrealistic leader who demands that the organizational performance shoot through the roof and into the moon. As a leader, you are called upon to ensure excellent performance. You can be demanding but if you set unrealistic expectations, you are setting up yourself, your people and the whole organization for failure.

Letting underperformers have their way.

Every team has a star player. You’re blessed if you have a team full of them. But most often than not, there would be at least an underperformer somewhere. Part of your role as a leader is to motivate your followers in such a way that they will be glad in doing the work for you and for the organization. Underperformance is contagious. It will undermine the culture of excellence you are building. So if you let the underperformers have their way, you’re actually sabotaging the organization.

Motivate them. Encourage them. Coach them. If all else fails, you can push the Eject button. Not the one on your seat but the one on the underperformer’s seat.

The Results Freak

Every organization needs results. If your organization is not producing good results anymore, you might be on a sinking ship. A leader committed to excellent results will help the organization win more clients and customers. But a results freak leader will drive his people crazy. If you are a results freak, you might win a lot of customers and your organization may grow in the short term. But in the process, you sacrifice relationships with the very people who power your organization.

Results should be balanced with relationships. After all, if your people are happy and passionate for your leadership and for the organization, they will deliver good results sans the ulcer and the workplace tension.

The Workplace Buddy (and Bunny)

You can be friends with your followers and co-workers. But if you become the workplace buddy, you can be the office bunny, too! They will enjoy being with you. Even joke around with you. But they might not take you seriously enough to deliver good results. You are not called to be a clown. You’re a leader to motivate and ensure excellent performance.

The Mumbling Communicator

Have you ever talked with a person who keeps mumbling and swallowing his words? You would always ask him to repeat what he said.

Do your followers and members always clarify what you mean? Do they always come back to you and ask if they got your instructions right? If so, you might be a mumbling communicator and you’re not letting your people know exactly what you want them to do.

The Deaf Leader

Are you listening to your people? Are you really listening to them beyond the words they are telling you? Communication is two-way and the only way for you to know the situation of the workplace and of the business is to listen to your followers. Sure, they may give written reports and they may even be rosy and colorful. The written report is only half of the story. Your followers can provide additional information and criticisms that could help you and the organization grow.

If you don’t listen to them, you won’t see the real picture inside the organization.

The Know-it-all

If you don’t listen to your followers, you may have a very bloated image of yourself and you keep telling them to do their work in a particular way. Being a know-it-all will drive your people away from you. It will lessen their esteem for you. Keep in mind that the followers also have talents and skills that they bring to the table. When you do that, you can easily motivate them to become responsible and excellent.

The Short Circuit Loop

Feedback is as important to you as to your followers and workers. Are you letting them know what you think of their work and their performance? If you are pleased, do you appreciate them? Do you reprimand them for mistakes and mishaps in the workplace?

If you don’t give feedback, you short-circuit the process of communication and growth in the organization. When the loop is there, you get feedback, you know how to adjust your plans for the organization and you can motivate your people better.

The “Later Today” Saints

“Why do today what you can do today,” so goes the slogan of procrastinators. If you keep relegating today’s tasks for tomorrow, tomorrow will catch up with you and you’ll find yourself buried under a whole pile of unfulfilled tasks and commitments. If that happens, you either cram and do sub-par work or bolt and leave the scene.

As the leader, you will need to learn how to manage time wisely, delegate where possible and prioritize the tasks that need to be done right away.

Status (Quo) Lovers

A good car. Nice position in the organization. Routine work. No sweat. Who doesn’t want that?

Be careful lest you come to love the status quo. When your performance is on a plateau, you’re at an status quo. And when that happens, you can expect that soon enough, the next direction you face will be down.

Results. Relationships. Communication. Feedback. Listening Skills. Delegation. Prioritization.

A leader needs these skills and more. If you’ve been committing these mistakes, you better work on developing your leadership skills.

image credit: Mymotivatr.com

Related posts:

1. Nurture the Elements of Accountability or Lose Your Leadership
2. Start Here! The Road to Transformational Leadership
3. The Cowardly Leader’s Guide to Rewarding Losers and Underperformers
4. Leadership Academy: 52 Ways to Develop Leadership
5. Corporate Social Responsibility Sucks If…

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