“A LEADER WITHOUT FOLLOWERS IS MERELY SOMEONE GOING FOR A WALK”

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http://blog.readytomanage.com/category/leadership-management

What is True Leadership?

February 21, 2013 by Stewart Mitchell

What Makes for a Lousy Leader?

August 2, 2012 by Dr. Jon Warner

Leadership is one of those strange things that is hard to describe.  “I have a dream ….” was Martin Luther King’s message, not “I have five K.P.I.’s and a business plan” which seems to be the catch-cry of many of today’s business and political “leaders”.  Can leadership be taught?  Is it a magical force reserved only for those special beings?

Leadership is not so much about getting others to follow you, but getting others to find and follow their own internal compass.  The essence of true leadership is being the catalyst for change in others.  The best way to raise your own self esteem is to raise the self esteem of others.  Thus, true leadership is about bringing out the leadership in others.  Good managers help people to do what they do better – good leaders take them where they have never been before.

 

In the book “The Pin Drop Principle” David Lewis and Riley Mills suggests that Lousy leadership begins with self-protective attitudes, not lack of skills, intelligence, or talent.

Lousy leaders:

1. Want to know more than others.
2. Can’t explore for fear of being wrong.
3. Won’t ask obvious questions for fear of looking dumb.
4. Need their egos stroked.
5. Wonder who’s out to get them.
6. Fear high performers; they need the spotlight.
7. Struggle to collaborate.
8. Won’t change their minds.
9. Feel isolated and alone.
10. Sacrifice long-term success for short-term profits.
11. Believes that it is only their personal contribution that counts to success of a project
12. Blames others, especially their teams for lack of result/success
13. Lacks integrity or doesn’t “walk the talk”
14. Takes the troops for granted
15. Sabotages success in order to remain in charge
16. Engages in empire building
17. Engages in “My way”/“no way” behaviour
18. Behaves in a “jobs worth” manner
19. Prefers to make people always work out of their comfort zone, rather than using them for the things they are good at
20. Has a lack of self-awareness
21. Thinks they are always right and that they always know the answer
22. Adopts other’s ideas as their own
23. Doesn’t give praise to the team where it’s due
24. Wants to “rule” over their team instead of working with and/or within it
25. Doesn’t deal with difficult people and/or situations and lets things fester until they become a major issue for the team/department
26. Ignores team member experience
27. Unwilling to listen or discuss issues
28. Unethical
29. Avoids contact with customers
30. Has a “blinkered” approach
31. Unwilling to adapt to changes of circumstance
32. Fails to understand the business objectives and capabilities
33. Can’t admit that they’re wrong, or that they made a mistake
34. Fails or refuses to show they have a human side
35. Doesn’t praise but only blames
36. Fails to seek personal accountability for a character weaknesses
37. Is a “know-it-all”
38. Lacks communication skills
39. Treats workers as chattels
40. Adopts an ‘us and them’ attitude and the ‘us’ lord it over the ‘them’
41. Always use ‘stick’ never ‘carrot’
42. Confuse “gravitas” with a failure to have a sense of humour
43. Regularly deploy the phrase “If I don’t understand it nobody will”
44. Actively resent any imparting of new knowledge by anyone else on the grounds that someone else knew something they didn’t…
45. Often have low-self-esteem or self-worth issues