Leadership flaws – which ones do you exhibit?

by Mark Evenden @ Developing People Limited

Great leaders are not successful simply because they are in the right place at the right time. They succeed because they play to their strengths, and they work hard at maximising them. Effective leaders are very conscious of their strengths and know how to deploy them for their own advantage and for the benefit of their Organisation. This mean that they can repeat their performance as a leader in any new role they find themselves in or different organisation they work for.

However, all leaders also have weaknesses. These weaknesses can inhibit a leaders’ success or in extreme cases they can be their downfall, if they are not aware of them. I remember a number of years ago I had a new boss. He was a guy from the ‘centre’, young and keen and the business promoted him to a director role. They wanted to give him experience of an operational role with a view to moving him into a more senior position within the group in due course.

While my new boss was keen and clearly wanted to do the best for the business, he was very unaware of the impact his behaviour had on others. For example he would:

• Grill me about my budgeted overspend and expect me to come up with an urgent plan to correct the situation. On investigation I discovered that he had shifted a large spend onto my budget to make another part of the business appear more successful than it actually was!
• Not listen to me or other people properly - he was not interested in other people’s views, just his own.
• Claim that people were the organisation’s most important asset, but not give time for them.
• Be insensitive to people’s needs and also be indiscrete
• Be overly critical about other people in public.

Great leaders are very self aware and understand their flaws and work hard to minimise the impact of their flaws on others. Sadly my new boss didn’t’ understand this concept - he thought that he already knew what he needed to. Interestingly he often complained about not getting as much engagement and commitment from his staff as he wanted, and he couldn’t understand why people didn’t respect or trust him. Perhaps if he was courageous enough to ‘look in the mirror’ he would have seen his flaws and done something about them.

Here at Developing People Ltd, we specialise in helping your leaders to maximise their strengths. Have a look at our Leadership Development page for more information, or telephone us on 0845 409 2346.