Transformational Leadership Blog

A leader should learn how to work with other people. Oftentimes, however, the leader feels that he should be doing more than the followers or other members of the organization.

Leaders often think that they are supposed to be busy. So they do a lot of things to the point that the leader becomes a soloist instead of being the conductor of an orchestra. Here are the top ten characteristics (and leadership mistakes) of the soloist leader:

1. All the “good” ideas come from him. He puts a premium on his intellect. But he puts a bigger importance on taking credit for all the good ideas. If it didn’t come from him, it must be a bad idea. Though you often catch him recycling some ideas from a while back, claiming them as his own.

2. The soloist leader considers attending meetings as “the” job. He’s always in a meeting trying to fix troubles or stirring up new ones. He measures his effectiveness by the number of meetings he attends weekly.

3. He is always out of coverage area. You cannot easily catch him in the office if you need him to sign some paper works. His phone is busy. And all you ever talk to is his secretary.

4. Tense and always in a hurry. When you finally caught up with the soloist leader, he is tense and in a hurry for the next meeting, for the next project and for whatever it is he’s working on.

5. Distracted and high strung. The soloist leader flares up easily and lashes out at whoever crosses his path in the wrong way.

6. The soloist leader complains that he’s doing all the work. He always tells his secretary and those in the meeting that he’s always doing the work. And that he is not getting the support he needs from his colleagues and team members. He cites all the things he’s doing for the organization and tells people to help him out somehow.

7. Takes credit for himself. The soloist leader has a knack for accepting accolades and praises for the job done by the group, the team and the organization. Not only that, he usually forgets to acknowledge the team members who helped him accomplish such praise-worthy project.

8. Remembers he has followers during crisis times. While he tends to take all the credit for himself, the soloist leader suddenly remembers all his team mates during crisis time. He needs to share the blame and the delegate responsibility once the blame game is on.

9. Does not have time for coaching individual team members. Because he’s always in a hurry, he does not spend time coaching team members. He ends up developing himself but neglects the team and the organization.

10. Has a long list of commitments in the office and outside. Ask his personal secretary. He has a business meeting here and there. He’s always catching up with business associates and friends. He has an endless list of organizational affiliations and he’s “committed” to them all.

Bonus: Has a haggard look. Look how dark his eye-bags are! He looks well groomed but he has that tired and exhausted look. He appears to have lots of energy but in fact, he’s always drinking some kind of energy drink.

The soloist leader is a candidate for heart attack, stroke and anxiety problems due to the overloaded schedule. The art of delegation is not rocket science. The leader does not do the job of ten people. Instead, he influences enough people to get the job done.

image credit: sylvaleduc

Related posts:

1. Fifteen Ingredients of Effective Teamwork
2. Do You Recognize these 5 Early Warning Signs of the Loss of Integrity in a Leader?
3. The Importance of Anticipation for a Leader and an Organization