Glancing behind, Andy saw no one on their trail. Turning to Brad, he finally felt free to speak.
Lexington, KY -
"Well, that was a pretty intense meeting," he said. "I can understand Phil wanting to go in this new direction, but I've got two major projects in the works that I know are important for our customers. I don't know about you, Brad, but I'm going to stall on this new initiative as long as I can ... "
Do you think a conversation such as this one could take place in your organization? For your sake, I hope not. Psychological research showing the need for goals and management support for those goals is overwhelming and decisive. Yet I have seen many an organization where direction and goals are set and individuals are left to fend for themselves. "They're big boys; they know what they have to do" is the common response.
Worse yet, too frequently I encounter what I call "rogue leaders." These folks may be good at leading their teams, but they fail at aligning with the larger organizational goals. The term narcissistic may come to mind for these individuals, but other psychological factors may play a part.
High performance factors
First, let's review related research for success factors for high performing groups: group goals, individual goals, group support and supportive relationships to work with individuals to attain those goals.
It is clear that both group and individual goals should contain short-term as well as long-term components. Short-term successes will build momentum, esprit de corps and credibility. The long-term goals maintain direction for the team and can be utilized to build a sense of urgency.
Your job as a leader is to build a culture that promotes both the use of goals and continued support and feedback surrounding those goals. High-performing teams communicate often and discuss what's working and what's not working. They keep the team goals, as well as the larger organization goals, in the forefront.
Destructive leadership
Too often I encounter rogue or destructive leaders. These individuals exhibit one or more behaviors that slow down or prevent progress toward your organizational goals. Worse, their behavior may not be readily apparent. As a leader, you will not be privy to all conversations among team members or leaders below you.
I have often witnessed lower-level leaders pushing their own agenda, allowing the larger organizational progress to wither. My observation is that the root of this behavior is commonly fear, which manifests itself in many different ways.
Narcissism is a common complaint I hear of leaders. While one might conclude that the self-aggrandizement that often accompanies narcissism belies confidence, the opposite is more likely. By appearing confident and important, these fearful individuals are attempting to bootstrap your opinion of them. They have a need to be liked and put upon a pedestal. In order to assuage this fear of neglect, they will place themselves upon the pedestal and hope that you will follow suit.
The paradox is that these individuals may ask subordinates to step in line behind them, as if following a pied piper, yet are unwilling to follow in your direction to meet larger organizational goals. Leaders with fragile egos will often demand loyalty, which may disrupt progress toward organizational goals when team members explore paths of progress outside the leader's group.
Your job as leader over these individuals will be to ferret out this destructive behavior and deal with it appropriately. While destructive behaviors from the leaders below you are often difficult to discern, you may find frequent and deep conversations with the leaders as well as their subordinates provide clues to such behavior. This is the value of feedback. Frequently review progress toward goals. Praise accomplishments congruent to the goals and delve into lapses of progress.
Alignment
One of the most common questions I get is, "What makes a good leader?" As you well know, this simple question has quite a long answer, and none of us would answer the same way. I've mulled this question over quite a bit and have discovered a succinct response: leadership is focus.
John F. Kennedy said we were going to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s decade. This singular focus drove initiatives from technology development to teaching children math and science. The beauty is that his vision and goal survived his death. Now that's focus.
When you focus everyone on the common goals, many of the ancillary issues fall away. If someone is not aligned with your goals, it is easy to begin a conversation delving into the issue. There is no need for emotional responses, just a display of the facts. When progress is not being made, probing questions may be asked without personal attacks or emotional outbursts.
Your organization can surely survive without paying attention to these leadership details, but will it achieve high performance? Possibly, but the odds, or statistics, are against you. Don't take a chance. Ensure that goals are in place, review progress toward the goals and develop a culture that fosters the care and feeding your workers need to perform at a high level.
Joel DiGirolamo heads the firm Turbocharged Leadership (www.turbochargedleadership.com), and has a BSEE, MBA, and an MS Psychology degree. You can contact Joel at joel@jdigirolamo.com.