Failing Leadership: What makes leadership fail?

You possibly may have come across the statement, So many leaders, so little leadership.” That’s the title of a book by John Stanko. The fact that you’re in a leadership position doesn’t guarantee that you are leading. There is every possibility that your leadership is failing and you may not even be aware of it.

This situation of failing leadership is worsened by what Jack McDevitt underlined in the statement when he said … the truth is that when your people don’t tell you what you need to know, it’s a failure of leadership. When a leader is surrounded by people who only tell him or her what they think the leader wants to hear rather than what he or she needs to know, it only serves to further facilitate leadership failure.

Symptoms of Failing Leadership

If you need to diagnose your leadership health, here are 9 top symptoms to look out for:

Lack of a clear compelling vision. The Leader’s vision sets the direction for everything and make it compelling enough that they want to follow it. A Russian provers states that if you chase two rabbits…you will not catch either one. The wisdom here is not to have many competing or conflicting visions.
Failure to listen to others especially those with different views and pretending to know it all. The best leaders are on a constant journey of discovery through questioning, listening and learning.
Accepting the status quo. Successful leaders are uncomfortable with and they are constantly challenging the status quo and pushing back against the paradigms. They’re on a constant and consistent mindset challenging them to think bigger, do more and improve on what they see around Leadership is about creating new things and moving forward in new ways. If nothing is changing, you’re not leading.
Lack of communication and engagement. If a leader is not connected and engaged with the people who are most valuable to them, they have stopped having influence and are no longer leading. A true leader knows the importance of communication and staying engaged.
Lack of trust. Trust is the foundation of leadership; when there is no trust there is no loyalty, no respect, no credibility—and it’s a sure indication that you have stopped leading, because leadership cannot happen in the absence of trust.
Lack of leadership confidence. No one wants to follow an insecure, unsure, self-conscious leader. Those traits do not promote assurances that you can be trusted to lead and guide.
Silenced complaints. A negative workplace is damaging, but some degree of complaint is healthy. The bottom line is this: if no one is complaining, people are settling, and they’re scared to speak up.
Failure to lead by example. If you don’t show respect for other people, they will not respect your leadership. Period. if you are frequently late for meetings or calls or just constantly moving the schedule around, your leadership isn’t going to be taken seriously, hence failing leadership.
Trying to please everyone. If your goal is to make everyone happy, you are never going to be an effective leader. Your team’s best accomplishments will come when you are stretching them past their comfort zone. If you seek everyone’s approval, that stretch won’t happen—and you still won’t have pleased them all.

I suggest you take the advice from the words of Paul the apostle in his advice to the Corinthians when he wrote ”Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. ” Lead from Within. If any of these traits sound familiar, do something before you find that your leadership is failing.

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