Why Leaders Fail?
McCartney and Campbell's paper in Leadership and Organizational Development Journal (Vol 27, No 3) early this year synthesizes several streams of research into a coherent model that can be used for developing leaders.Of great interest to this reader was the factors related to falure in organizations that were classified as management behaviors:
- Falure to meet objectives
- Over managing
- Lack of follow through
- Inability to prioritize
The authors also included leadership behaviors that can be derailers:
- Poor interpersonal relationships
- Abrasive behavior
- Appearing cold, aloof, and arrogant
- Inability to build a team and resolve conflict
- Inability to adapt and change
- Inability to adabt to boss' style or culture change
- Reactive rather than proactive
Have you ever been accused of any of these leadership or management failures? After reading these, I found myself wondering how many leaders are out there that are struggling with more than one of these items. The model works for me and I plan to use it as a check list for future leadership development programs. What's your thoughts, is anything missing as a derailer?
Posted at 06:32AM May 30, 2006 by mowen in Leading Teams & Coaching | Comments[2]
Thanks for this particular blog entry, Mitch. I read it over, and will mirror your effort by keeping it as a checklist of what things to keep to on my professional "front burner." It is interesting to consider the list, as focusing on achieving any one of the individual items can create tension in one's ability to achieve others on the list: as an example, spending time developing, leading and maintaining a great team can keep one from being able to also meet deadlines/accomplish large projects. However, another item on the list pertains to meeting priorities. Given the individual items on the list, are they, then, all priorities and therefore, focusing on each of them to achieve success IS the priority? Just some thoughts.
Posted by Sheri on June 07, 2006 at 03:54 PM EDT #
Great Post. For me, I think it is a good checklist for examining one's own areas of strength and weakness. I would tend to focus on using my strengths.. seeking out opportunties where my strenghts can be maximized, while also limiting the impact of my weaknesses on what I am trying to achieve. The list of competencies serve as a tool for helping me know where to develop. Through self-development in the areas where I feel I am weak, I might eventually grow as a leader.
Posted by Mitch on June 07, 2006 at 04:10 PM EDT #