In the past several
years, there have been numerous organizations that have seen failure because of their
leaders and their leadership theory. I am currently reading William Cohan’s book
House of Cards that works through the financial crisis of the early 2000’s.
Cohan focuses on Bear Stearns as one of the financial institutes that failed
during the financial crisis. The noticeable piece about the Bear Stearns
failure was as much about the leadership of the financial institute as anything
else. What is more amazing is the type of leadership style that contributed to
the failure is still at work in many organizations. Because of this faulty
leadership style, many organizations have reached an unhealthy state.
There are three pitfalls
that leaders and organizations model that can lead to a failure of the
institute. The first two are personal decisions that are made by individuals in
their attempt to climb up the ladder to lead. The third is an organizational
decision about leadership promotion that can lead to possible failure in a
department, unit, group, or entire organization.
Me vs. We
When leadership begins
on the foundation of “Me/Self” rather than “We/Team”, the opportunity for true
success is small. This is not to say success defined in some manner will not
happen. However, it will not be a success that leads to the total growth of an
organization and its team members.
Individuals that are
leaders by position who think only of themselves can cause division and lack of
value in their team. The idea of leadership for them is to highlight their
achievements and skills while neglecting or taking advantage of the team
members. They want the limelight and believe only they deserve it.
As stated before, this
can be true, but it does not provide for a healthy organization. A true leader
will understand that “Me” is actually “We”. This means the entire team and not
only those they favor. The breadth of knowledge, ideas, and skills of an entire
team is a valuable asset for a leader. The opportunity to harness this and use
it to bring about organizational success that everyone can feel a part is
beneficial.
Positional Privilege
Besides the leader that
operates with only their self in mind, there is also the leader that leads
because of the privileges that surround the position. I have been in
organizations that leaders, whether they are true leaders or not, take
advantage of their position. This can be a little difficult but let me explain.
I often talk about the
need to have a healthy life balance of work, family, and relaxation. However,
as a leader you need to know when the appropriate time to take time off and
when not to take it off. As a leader, the participation in organizational
events, meetings, and conferences is important to your entire team. However, if
you decide to take the time off during one of these scheduled occasions, to
your staff, it can indicate your lack of support for the event or that you do
not care about it. On the other hand, I have a good friend that does extensive
traveling returning home late at night but will still be up and available for
early morning meetings. Even though traveling is a part of the position, the
commitment to the team he leads is more important than the positional privilege
of taking time off.
Competency vs.
Leadership
A third area of concern
is an organization that promotes individuals based solely on competency and
length of service into leadership positions. Let me state first, that any true
leader does need to have competency in order to lead at any level of an
organization. However, that is not the primary requirement for leadership. If
an individual knows how a specific program works but does not know how that
interfaces with processes or its role in strategic planning, that can cause an
issue for an organization. Additionally, the knowledge of a program does not
offset the inability to lead, motivate, or grow people that they are set to
lead.
I think that any strong,
successful leader is continually learning and gaining knowledge. The difference
is not to gain control or move up in company but to better serve the company.
The competency that a leader strives for is to provide growth for everyone, not
just themselves. The individual that seeks knowledge for themselves becomes a
“Me” leader and not a “We” leader and is usually wanting to move up into
leadership for power and privilege not to serve others.
Your Choice
The world of business,
higher education, government, and many other industries look for individuals
who will lead them to success. However, that does not mean they leave behind
the values of team growth, valuing individuals, and serving others. It now
requires those items and many more. The questions now become; how is your organization being led? How
are you leading? Do you do it for yourself and the privileges associated with
the position? Do you desire to assist others to succeed and in it see the
organization grow? That decision is up to each individual and through it
success and growth can be experienced. If not, your organization could be the next Bear Stearns.
