Overcoming the Characteristics of Ineffective Leadership

When asked, most of us can readily identify recent experiences of bad leadership and the potentially devastating consequences they have for an organization. As a business psychologist, I am frequently faced with the challenge of working with an organization that is struggling with low employee morale, high turnover, or stagnation because of unmotivated staff.

It is no longer surprising to me that these problems are generally related to the inflexible leadership or communication style of a key senior manager. These managers have been promoted because they are intelligent and experienced with a history of exceptional personal work. However, those skills that have helped them to succeed go to waste because they lack the skills to work through and with others.

These leaders are often perceived as demeaning, insensitive, and verbally abusive. Confident about their abilities, focused on getting the job done, and always needing to be right, they fail at creating the collaborative working relationships that are needed in today's work environment. They are generally unaware of how they affect other people because they are so focused on the tasks at hand and doing a good job.

Inflexible Communication Style

So you say, what if anything can be done about that? By using DiSC^Ò Classic with most of my client organizations (Please see my May 2006 newsletter for more information) I have discovered that these problem managers often share the same dominant DiSC^Ò characteristic; the common, non-judgmental language of the DiSC^Ò allows these individuals to recognize their style of communication and to understand how it affects others. Once they realize it is not them, but their communication behavior, that is ineffective, they can be more willing to adapt their style in order to become more effective with different people.

Inflexible Leadership Style

These same ineffective leaders also mostly use the "Command and Control" leadership style that I've mentioned in earlier newsletters. As we know, this style was prevalent in the 20^th Century; but it doesn't always work now.

In their newly released book, "5-D Leadership: Key Dimensions for Leading in the Real World," Scot Campbell and Ellen Samiec dispel the myth that there is only one way to be an effect leader. They suggest that in "organizations where day-to-day leadership is what separates the truly great from the merely good, one style is not enough to master complex business challenges."

From their research, they have identified five basic leadership approaches, each of which may be used to respond to the unique demands of any particular situation:

• COMMANDING: taking charge and seeking immediate compliance to quickly affect a desired result.

• VISIONING: creating and effectively communicating a clear and compelling picture of a worthwhile future for the group.

• ENROLLING: creating buy-in and commitment by genuinely seeking input or employing democratic decision-making process, or both.

• RELATING: creating and sustaining harmonious relationships 1) between you and individual staff members, and 2) among staff members themselves.

• COACHING: developing an individual's potential and performance while aligning the individual's goals and values with those of the organization.

Now reflect on your own experience, and think about the leaders of those organizations that are productive and staffed by people who seem to enjoy their work. Which of the five leadership dimensions described above characterize the style of those leaders? Do any of those leaders use all five approaches?

Each approach has an appropriate context:

• COMMANDING

• When facing a genuine crisis or emergency.

• To kick-start a turnaround.

• When dealing with a problem employee with whom other approaches have failed.

• VISIONING

• When change requires a new vision.

• When staff are losing or have lost their connection to the meaning and value of the work.

• When the group has lost its focus or sense of direction.

• When responding to tragedy or crisis.

• ENROLLING

• When you need to get buy-in on a decision or direction.

• When you need to improve quality.

• When you need others' input to make a sound decision.

• RELATING

• When rifts in a team need healing.

• When communication networks need to be improved or extended.

• When problems in communication or teamwork are hampering the group's effectiveness or potential.

• When stress if fraying relationships.

• COACHING

• When an employee wants to improve performance.

• When the breadth and depth of the group's leadership need to be improved.

Just as with developing a more flexible communication style, becoming a more flexible leader begins with valuing and creating self-awareness about your leadership strengths and the benefits of adapting your strengths to better fit the demands of the situation.