11 What Should Leaders Avoid?

Carla could see the handwriting on the wall: the organization’s board was going to fire the organization’s executive director. Carla, herself a board member, knew that it was only a matter of time. Every monthly board meeting seemed consumed with fixing the executive director’s errors and oversights. For a while, board members had given the director substantial grace, assuming that the director would soon hit her stride. But instead, the director’s omissions and mistakes accumulated and compounded. What was even worse, Carla detected that the director wasn’t being open and accountable about the matters. Indeed, Carla could see that her fellow board members no longer even trusted the director to tell them the truth. It was only a matter of time, and not much time, before the director would be gone.

Mistakes

Leaders can make errors and mistakes that cripple their organization and end their leadership. Indeed, leaders can show their incompetence through misfeasance and even commit misconduct through malfeasance. Sometimes, the best leader is the one who makes bold and risky moves that rescue the organization, position it for the future, and leap the organization forward. Yet other times, the best leader is the one who makes no bold or risky moves and instead simply avoids making big mistakes. Risk carries reward, but risk also carries consequences and losses. The leader who throws an unnecessary Hail Mary pass when already well ahead in the game, and when the proper strategy is a conservative ground game, may just be handing the ball and momentum back to the enemy. Effective leadership isn’t only about strong skills and admirable attributes. Effective leadership can also be about avoiding big mistakes. 

Change

A first mistake that a leader can make is to change things simply for change’s sake. New leaders can feel pressure to justify their selection and set a new course to demonstrate their visionary leadership. Yet some organizations don’t need a new course. They instead need to stay the course, to build on their burgeoning success. The new leader who takes over a struggling organization from a prior leader whom the organization fired for incompetence or who abruptly quit before the ship sank likely needs to make swift changes. But the new leader who takes over for a visionary leader who rescued the organization, setting it on the perfect course, likely needs to leave things alone, instead staying the course. Consider carefully the circumstances of your retention as leader and the state of your organization’s affairs, before you begin to make bold changes. Your organization’s operations may already be finely tuned and balanced, where even modest changes can upset the apple cart. Your early mistake may quickly lose confidence in your leadership. Get to know your organization and personnel before making changes, if things are already going pretty well.

Neglect

A second mistake that a leader can make, this one in the opposite direction, is to neglect the organization’s affairs. Ambitious leaders aren’t usually prone to neglect. They instead like to take visible action, moving things around and pulling various levers. But not all leaders are ambitious. Some leaders like the accoutrements of leadership more than its work. An organization’s workforce or membership can usually tell when a leader is absent from the organization’s controls. When managers struggle to get decisions and resources from the leader, the impact on the organization’s operations can be swift and obvious. Word gets around quickly when the leader begins missing work hours and then work days, and employees can’t locate the leader to report issues and get guidance. Neglect can show up quickly in accounts payable and receivable issues, regulatory compliance issues, quality issues, workplace morale, and employee conflicts. When the cat’s away, the mice will play. Don’t let neglect undermine your leadership. Keep your hands on the controls.

Interference

Leaders should, on the other hand, beware interfering with and discouraging the engagement and productivity of organization members. An active leader is generally a good leader. Activity that makes the leader visible can encourage an organization’s members that the organization has competent, committed, and involved leadership. Activity shows that the leader is invested, accountable, and accessible. The leader who maintains a bias toward action over inaction generally pursues a sound course. A leader can, though, overdo activity. A leader’s actions should not undermine the responsibility and standing of the leader’s management team, nor disrespect the responsibility, skills, and commitment of line workers or members. Before you undertake an activity, especially one that bears no urgency and may instead be simply doing something to be active and visible, consider whether your action may adversely affect the initiative, authority, and responsibility of another organization member. Act when necessary and appropriate, but don’t interfere. 

Micromanagement

Leaders who fall into the habit of managing more so than leading can commit the error of micromanagement. Managing involves directing the work rather than deciding what work to do. Leading involves deciding the work to do and how to acquire the resources and skill to do it. As your organization’s leader, lead, don’t manage. Especially, don’t micromanage. When you delegate work to others, don’t do their job for them. Don’t even tell them how to do it, if they already know how. When as a leader you usurp others’ roles, they necessarily step back and cede responsibility to you, when to the contrary you want them to take greater responsibility on their own. The more you look over the shoulder of your leadership team or other subordinates within your organization, directing them to do things as you prefer rather than as they best know how, the more you disable engagement and discourage commitment and innovation. Micromanaging can not only demotivate workers but also distract you from higher priority issues and opportunities. Insecure leaders micromanage because they lack the vision and confidence to lead. 

Exploitation

Leaders can unfortunately fall into the practice of exploiting their leadership team, workforce, or other members or constituents of their organization. Leaders can be hard driving. Leaders can appropriately demand urgency, commitment, effort, and creativity from their team members. But leaders must balance their demands with the recognition that the worker is due a fair wage. Leaders can have substantial leverage over the lives and welfare of team members. When leaders abuse that leverage with unreasonable demands or inadequate rewards, the leader is exploiting rather than inspiring team members. In the worst case, leaders may fall into bullying, harassing, or even sexually harassing subordinates. Exploitation can also extend to vulnerable suppliers, donors, and others having a relationship with the organization. Exploitation won’t last long. It soon destroys the exploited relationship and, with it, the exploiting leader. And when it does, it leaves a deep wound on the organization that can take years to heal. Avoid anything that approaches exploitation. 

Gossip

Leaders must avoid gossip, especially about members of the organization but also about anyone having any relationship with the organization or field. Gossip unnecessarily shares private or negative information about others. Leaders are often in a position to learn negative or private information about others. Reporting goes up the chain of command to the leader. The leader may thus know everything about everyone in the organization that anyone in the organization also knows. Leaders may also have a temptation to use gossip to interest, influence, impress, and control others. Gossip is thus a special hazard for leaders. Yet gossip has a way of getting quickly around to the ears of its subject. Gossip about someone, and they’ll soon hear of the gossip and react negatively. You may soon hear about your having shared gossip, even to the point of facing civil liability for defamation or invasion of privacy. Or you may not hear but may instead see relationships quietly sour and morale deeply decline. Gossip plants poisonous seeds in fertile soil. Gossip grows like weeds among an organization’s flowers. Gossip destroys the crop and spoils the harvest. Avoid gossip at all costs. Develop the habit of keeping your own counsel, when the subject involves negative information about others.

Resentment

Jealousy and resentment are other faults for which leaders must watch. Leaders lacking in humility and confidence can be overly sensitive to their standing and reputation. They may, out of their leadership role, expect to be above everyone else in the organization. They can even be so sensitive as to be jealous and resentful of the good reputation and successes of others within the organization. Jealousy and resentment can cause a leader to withhold due recognition from others and to claim credit for the work of others, damaging others’ commitment and engagement. A jealous leader can eventually drive away the strongest members of the organization. Resentment can also cause a leader to remove the strongest members from their positions of greatest impact or to deny them the resources to succeed. Resentment is thus a leader’s enemy, undermining exactly what the leader should promote, which is the engagement and success of other organization members. An effective leader is generally one who has enough humility and self-confidence to allow others to shine brighter than the leader shines, when their efforts benefit the organization. The best leaders recognize others more so than demand recognition for themselves.

Avoidance

Another error that leaders can make is to avoid necessary conflict and correction. A leader who is a people pleaser and conflict avoider won’t get to the root of problems quickly, to address and resolve them. Avoidance allows issues to fester and worsen. Leaders shouldn’t go looking for fights. Yet leaders also shouldn’t avoid a necessary fight. Indeed, the leader should be the one most willing within the organization to confront the issue, call a spade a spade, broach the hard subject, and have the difficult conversation. Leaders shouldn’t be walking delicately around on tenterhooks, anxiously waiting for the festering issue to erupt. They should instead confront, address, resolve, and disarm the situation. Don’t avoid issues that you know you need to address. Instead, go looking for those issues so that they don’t discourage and distract others, and grow worse than they already are. A leader’s obligations include stepping up to take on the hard issues. If you find yourself avoiding doing so, stop immediately, arm yourself to confront the issue, and promptly address it. You’ll likely find that the cumulative stress of avoiding the issue is worse than the brief stress of confronting it. And it doesn’t matter how you feel. The organization needs your leadership, not your avoidance.

Favorites

Playing favorites can be another damaging leader error. Leaders can reasonably come to depend on key team members. Leaders make no mistake when doing so. Choose your lieutenants wisely, and empower them to carry out your delegated tasks using your delegated authority. But don’t treat your organization’s members inequitably, favoring one member over another when both members deserve the same treatment. Especially don’t favor one member over another when the favored member exhibits no special merit for that favor and instead uses flattery or the member’s other special favors to gain your attention. Hard-working and effective team members will notice if you ignore their hard work and effectiveness but shower your attention on another undeserving team member who uses personality, looks, touches, or other personal approaches to gain your favor. We all appreciate kindness. We also all have some with whom friendship is easier than others. You make no mistake when you enjoy the company of some of your organization’s members a little more than other members. But beware forming fast friendships among subordinates. Don’t play favorites in ways that discourage commitment and reduce loyalty and morale. 

Cloistering

Another fault leaders can fall into is to cloister themselves off in the leader’s office, isolated from the organization’s workforce or membership. Leaders need time alone to reflect, deliberate, assess, strategize, and plan.  The leader cloistered in the office, disconnected from the organization’s operations and activities, may be hatching grand organizational plans. Don’t apologize for needing time to yourself to think. Yet the cloistered leader can quickly fall out of touch with an organization’s condition and performance. A day’s absence can subtly affect a leader’s sense of the organization’s state. A week’s absence can leave a leader relatively out of touch and in need of catching up on what’s happening in and around an organization. Periodic brief leader absences can, on the other hand, be good for an organization, when others can briefly lead, and when the leader returns energized for a fresh look at things. But when a leader remains isolated from the organization’s members and operations as a leadership practice and style, leadership suffers. Don’t cloister yourself in the office. Maintain your leadership presence and activity. 

Perfectionism

A hard-charging and ambitious leader who also pays attention to details can be a great asset to an organization. But generally, the details of operational issues are for others to address within an organization, not for the leader. The leader who exhibits an obsession and perfectionism over every little thing can annoy and rattle subordinates. Perfectionism corrects things that don’t bear correction because they don’t materially affect operations. Perfectionism is inefficient in that it requires effort and attention devoted to insignificant conditions. Perfectionism distracts from the material matters that a leader and an organization’s members should be addressing. A little disorder is natural and can even be fortuitous and comforting, while perfect order is unnatural and can be sterile and oppressive. Don’t let your perfectionism burden your team and distract you and others from the important things at hand. 

Reflection

On a scale from one to ten, how error prone are you? Do you frequently make mistakes in judgment and action? When you make a mistake, what is its usual cause? When you make a mistake, are you willing and able to acknowledge and correct it? Do you tend to make changes just for change’s sake? Are you neglectful of your duties, often off on a detour or tangent? Do you exploit or bully others? Are you frequently interfering with your team’s work? Do you micromanage matters rather than delegating and empowering? Do you gossip about your organization’s members? Are you jealous and resentful of others’ good reputation, standing, attention, and success? Do you avoid conflicts when you should instead engage them? Do you exhibit favoritism within your team? Are you subject to flattery? Do you cloister yourself in your office in a bunker mentality? Do you exhibit obsessiveness, compulsion, and perfectionism, to the detriment of your team?

Key Points

• Leaders need to avoid making big mistakes that cripple the team.

• Don’t change just for change’s sake, when your team is excelling.

• Beware neglecting your duties lest you miss necessary actions.

• Never take undue advantage of others or exploit or bully workers.

• Don’t let your leadership actions interfere with team productivity.

• Avoid micromanaging operations, instead monitoring and leading.

• Never gossip about others, especially organization personnel.

• Avoid resentment over others’ skills, standing, and success.

• Don’t avoid conflict or issues that need you to address them.

• Don’t play favorites with your leadership team or team personnel.

• Beware cloistering yourself in your office, invisible to your team.

• Avoid perfectionism that demotivates and distracts from success.

Read Chapter 11.