Always
Losing a £40m contract overnight can be a shock, especially if its half your business. In one split second it can turn a leader inside out.
My client always preferred to relate and communicate with the individual members of his senior management team (SMT) on a one to one basis. He would avoid regular monthly management meetings with all the team. If any such meetings were called he would always decide who should attend and who should not; full management information, including the financials, would not be available either.
Leaders that behave this way do it because they know they are in absolute control. It’s one on one and whatever style or manner they adopt they can always face down their employee, even if he/she is a director. They know there is no one else in the room to challenge or contradict their views.
The downside of this approach is always the same. The SMT is fragmented and dysfunctional. You pay a small fortune to attract high talent to the business but then you treat them like children so, the intelligent ones, they leave. The serious issues are not debated or discussed in open forum and therefore it is always the leader’s views that prevail. The concept of the SMT working as a team with all the benefits of synergy, innovation and creativity are totally and utterly lost.
Why do leaders behave like this? There is always another agenda.
It can be anything – emotional insecurity, tax evasion, lifestyle issues, inability to trust, poor choice of colleagues. Whatever it is, the prognosis for the patient is not good and it may be terminal.
Labels: leadership style, other agendas, politics interferring with business.
posted by Tim @ 9:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home