I have been surveying my peer leaders for the last few weeks about what makes great leadership.
There has been no limit to the responses and so many have been great and spot-on.
Don’t micromanage.
Give and receive feedback.
Run effective meetings.
Build people up.
Emotional intelligence.
Team engagement.
Psychological safety and empathy.
Decision making.
I could go on and on, yet all these great answers made me think. If so many people have so many great ideas and there are so many ways to be a great leader and have great leadership, how come we see so many instances of bad leadership?
In the last two years, I have to say that I have seen first-hand more examples of bad leadership than good leadership.
What I indicated above is not rocket science and not even that hard to come by. A simple internet search of good leadership will give you these same elements.
So, how come we come across so many instances of bad leadership?
My first inclination was, it is so much easier to be a bad leader than a good leader.
Being a good leader takes self-reflection, and that can be scary.
A good leader may need to understand some level of human behaviour and psychology and that can be hard.
Getting training can be expensive and time consuming.
Practicing what is learned takes time and who has time when there is work to be done.
And there is a good chance of failure, maybe even half the time.
A person in leadership might not want these failures to impact their personal performance records.
Many organizations may encourage personal results even in leadership positions and completely ignore leadership results. There are no incentives to be a great leader and no downside for being a bad one.
And, like I said, it takes no effort to be a bad leader, and human beings tend to gravitate towards what is easy.
Given this, what can be done to change the existing paradigm for a lack of a better word.
The simplest thing might be to make good leadership easy.
I know, an impossible mission, yet I will take it on in the form of questions.
First, do want to be in your leadership role?
What is your mindset?
Do you understand psychology?
What is your leadership style?
Can you control your emotions?
Do you trust your abilities?
Do you trust the staff?
Is time management an issue?
Are you coaching staff?
Have you started your toolkit?
I know what you are thing, these questions are not answers and some may not seem easy.
So, I will come back next month and provide very short answers to each of these questions and provide you with a starting place for your journey.
Don’t get me wrong, I know it is not easy, yet I am living proof it is possible.
Until then, don’t be a bad leader, even if you are not ready to be good yet.