7 Reasons Leaders Fail

November 25, 2016
|In Blog
|By Len Moisan

The Trouble Begins

A pastor gets laid off after a church conflict because church growth failed and “things just didn’t work out.” Employees go out on strike and the CEO gets fired. A nonprofit executive loses the confidence of his board, fundraising decreases and they end his tenure. Why? Well, there are lots of reasons why leaders fail, but often included are one or more of the following:

  1. They don’t build trust by keeping promises – Keeping promises implies commitment. When leaders make promises and keep them, it builds credibility with followers. But credibility goes beyond promises. There is an assumption with leaders that they are both competent and visionary in ways that can expand the capacity of both individuals and organizations.
  2. They make it more about them than about advancing the organization – In Good to Great Jim Collins identified the most successful leaders as level 5 leaders. These are people with a combination of personal humility, strategic planning and ferocious resolve to achieve the mission and goals. Humility is important because the leader is demonstrating that the work is about the mission and not about his or her ego.
  3. They fix blame and not problems – President Kennedy once noted that we should, “not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” Fixing blame never solves problems. Instead, it spends negative energy and extends the time it takes to fix problems.
  4. They don’t realize that leadership is relational rather than positional – In his masterful work entitled Leadership, James MacGregor Burns noted that leadership is not a position; it’s relational. Burns broke down leadership into a relationship between leaders and followers that includes transactional, transformational and moral components. Inherent in that relationship is power, and how people use power determines whether they are leading or power wielding.
  5. They don’t align their behavior with the core values of the organization – Core values define the ethos of an organization. They describe how the organization will operate both internally and externally. It is a leader’s job to ensure that behavior is aligned with the core values, and that begins with the leader. You can’t have double standards and expect people to take the values seriously.
  6. They don’t thank others or acknowledge their contributions – At least part of the leader’s job is to create an environment where people feel important and appreciated. That comes first by acknowledging their contributions. There are lots of ways to recognize others, but the important thing here is to make the effort and do it.
  7. They don’t communicate effectively – Communication is a two-way process that includes both speaking and listening. The former is easy for most people. However, the latter is a bit more difficult. Leaders actually are good listeners and that benefits them greatly. First, listening helps leaders gain a better perspective on the organization and its people. Second, if you listen to others you are likely to get some good ideas. Third, listening to others tells them that you are interested in and value what they have to say, which is an extension of who they are.