Why do leaders fail? Common wisdom states that leaders fail to lead mainly because of lack of smarts, skills or requisite experience. But dig a little deeper and you will see that that leadership failure has more to it than just what is apparent. Real leadership development happens when aspiring leaders are willing to work through various transitions and challenges that they will inevitably face in the course of their career.
The reason
Dr Robert Kaplan, Harvard Professor, attributes the failure to lead, to an inability to address the following questions:
~ Are you confident enough to ask questions and seek advice?
~ Are you open to learning or do you think you are supposed to have all the answers?
~ Are you able to withstand feeling vulnerable, and are you comfortable enough to ask for help, admit what you do not know, empower others and harness the power of your team?
~ Are you comfortable being authentic?
~ Do you operate in a manner that causes you to become increasingly isolated?
Answering all these questions requires clear ownership mind-set, according to Dr Kaplan. In a complex world, a leader, aspirational or accidental, would be able to work without the help of others. But that is not the case in today’s business world, which is volatile, complex, ambiguous, and uncertain. No single person has all the insights, domain expertise and perspectives to be able to factor in a multitude of considerations and assess all the needs for development.
Leadership involves being open to listening. It is more than just a destination, as many would like to believe; it is a process and journey. Once you believe you are done with learning, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: you are done with developing. Always remember: building your capacity to learn and adapt should never end; it should be a lifelong discipline.
The challenges
Know-it-all : The first major challenge for leadership development is the belief that a leader should know everything and have all the answers. As a result, they are afraid of asking questions, for the fear of coming across as ignorant, and therefore, weak.
A leader should question himself/herself: Am I open to changing my mind? Can I admit that I was wrong? How leaders address these questions has a lot to do with their mental leadership model and their emotional make-up.
Dr Kaplan believes there is enormous asymmetry between the boss and his or her subordinates. The boss has to set the tone for interactions with his team with this imbalance in mind. As a person moves from a promising professional into more advanced leadership roles, his or her openness to ask and learn can begin to erode. And when this openness to ask stops, learning stops; when learning stops, leaders begin to make mistakes.
Consciousness : Another aspect of being successful as a leader is to be conscious of becoming isolated from what we do. This happens when leaders are unable to see themselves or their circumstances clearly.
The resultant impact is decreased ability to analyse a situation objectively, to act and add value to others. More often than not, it develops over time as a blind spot. When leaders fail to ask questions, or suffer from an illusion that they need to know all answers, they send out a vibe that comes across as not wanting to hear what others have to say; for the leader’s benefit, of course.
Dr Kaplan again recommends answering a set of questions to understand if the leaders are becoming isolated.
~ Do you seek advice?
~ Do you interview your people?
~ Do you listen without interrupting?
~ Do you usually have a communication device on the table, that does a good job of distracting you when you are meeting with someone?
~ Are most of your interactions by e-mail, phone or in person?
~ What practices or early-warning indicators do you have in place to warn you if you have a severe blind spot?
Leaders, therefore, have a task cut out to remain relevant and valuable. This happens only when they are open to asking questions, instead of pretending to be a know-it-all.