Great leadership is the oil that keeps your company’s engine running and enables growth. The art of leadership is a complex and deep subject, and if you head up a successful company with a great culture, you are likely already a master leader. That said, as a leader in your business, your job is develop other leaders, as well.
When keeping an eye toward developing existing or new leaders in your business, it’s important to be able to identify flaws that need to be addressed quickly. In this blog, we identify five leadership flaws which have the potential to cause challenges for your company and its culture. This is not an all-inclusive list by any means, but these are common flaws that should be watched for in your in existing company leadership (or future leaders) and addressed quickly.
- Not being engaged with your customers
If a person’s leadership style does not include meeting personally with customers and engaging with them routinely, this could signal trouble. Leaders need to know what customers are thinking, what motivates them, and how well the company is meeting their needs. People who struggle with in-person communication tend to fall back on just sending emails. However, email communication is not necessarily the most effective way to engage with customers. If your team leadership is disconnected here, your relevance to your customers may be waning. That’s a danger sign.
- Not demonstrating Integrity
We have written about this leadership trait in other articles, and will continue to reinforce it. One cannot be a good (let alone great) leader without demonstrating integrity to the team, customers, and vendors consistently. This includes social time, as well. Team members, the public, and your customers are always watching to see how you “walk your talk.” Even the slightest slip on the integrity side can be a fatal flaw that undermines authority, and deeply affects credibility/trustworthiness. This can’t be emphasized enough to every leader in your organization.
- Wanting to be liked above all else
The journey to become a leader can lead to strained relationships on a team. Being an effective leader requires making decisions that can affect the team in both positive and negative ways. The tendency to make decisions based upon popularity is a trap that’s easy to fall into. It’s a leader’s job to make the best decisions for the company and its future, whether its popular or not. Communicating reasons for why a decision was made can go a long way to avoiding conflict or being “disliked”, but the leader who makes decisions based solely on whether the team likes the decision can be going down the wrong road for the company.
- Not setting performance expectations and holding people accountable
People really do want performance expectations clearly defined for their job. When they know what is expected of them, they are happier, more productive, and strive to excel at their jobs. Having team members that don’t have expectations clearly defined, can lead to morale and retention issues. In addition, if leadership is not consistent about holding people accountable (or are selective in the people they hold accountable) this can be a fatal flaw.
- Getting stuck in the past
Getting stuck in the way the company has always done things can be an insidious flaw that needs to be continually watched for. Becoming static as a business, and not having the agility to adapt with rapidly changing markets, and new ideas can become a real problem. Leadership should have the ability to think creatively and adaptively. Leaders should continually listen to feedback from the team, customers, vendors, your mentors. If processes, products, or solutions need to be adapted or restructured, the leader should have the ability to do this.
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In LX Council, we consistently talk about leadership strengths and weaknesses. Being around the table with other leaders, listening to their concerns and challenges, along with solutions and best practices can help you take your business and leadership skills to the next level.
Our business leader members regularly bring powerful ideas to share in our meetings, including but not limited to: best practices, business processes, employment practices, as well as useful productivity tools and apps. If you’re ready to take your business and leadership skills to the next level, and if you think your business could benefit from more insights like what’s offered in this article, let’s start a conversation. LXCouncil may be the perfect next step!
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