WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BOSSES DON’T LEAD
I’ve been studying leadership for over fifty years, and in just about every conference I’ve taught, someone has come up to me and said something similar to this: “I like what you teach about leadership, but I can’t apply it. I’m not the main leader. And the person I work under is a terrible boss.”
Is that where you live? Are you working somewhere in the middle of an organization with a boss who can’t or won’t lead? You don’t have any “official” power to make changes, so you feel stuck. You have ideas. You want to make a contribution. You want to make things happen. But the person you work for makes it difficult.
WHEN LEADERS DON’T LEAD
Many people find themselves in this kind of situation. I know I say this so often that some people are tired of hearing it, but I believe it down to the core of my being. Everything rises and falls on leadership. It really does. If you don’t believe it, just put together a group of people without a leader and watch them. They will drift. When there is no good leader directing a team, running a department, leading an organization, or heading a family, then the following results are inevitable.
DECISIONS ARE DELAYED
Not all good decision makers are leaders, but all good leaders are decision makers. Often it takes a leader to make decisions—and if not to make them, then to help others make them more quickly.
AGENDAS ARE MULTIPLIED
When a group of people comes together and no one is clearly the leader, then individuals begin to follow their own agendas. Before long, all the people are doing their own thing. Teams need leadership to provide a unifying voice.
CONFLICTS ARE EXTENDED
One of the most important roles of a leader is conflict resolution. In the absence of clear leadership, conflicts always last longer and inflict more damage. Often it takes a good leader to step up, step in, and bring everyone to the table to work things out. Leaders must always be ready to do what it takes to help people resolve their conflicts.
MORALE BECOMES LOW
Napoleon said, “Leaders are dealers in hope.” When leaders are not present or not leading, people often lose hope and morale plummets. Why is that? Because morale can be defined as “faith in the leader at the top.”
PRODUCTION IS REDUCED
Strong leaders are creative in finding ways to help others become productive. Sometimes it means laying out a challenge. Sometimes it means giving people training. Sometimes it means encouraging others or putting up incentives. If the same thing worked for every person in every situation, then there would be no need for leaders. Because every person is different and circumstances are constantly changing, it takes a leader to figure out what’s needed and to put that solution into action.
SUCCESS IS DIFFICULT
I believe many people want to dismiss the importance of leadership when it comes to organizational success. They don’t see it—and in some cases they don’t want to see it. Leadership comes into play, even when you don’t want it to. Your organization will not function the same without strong leaders in every department or division. All organizations need leaders at every level in order to be successful.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE VISION?
One of the worst things that happens when bosses don’t lead is that the vision of the organization suffers. If a team starts out with a vision but without a competent leader, it is in trouble. Why? Because vision leaks. And without a leader, the vision will dissipate, and the team will drift until it has no sense of direction.
Has your leader neglected to communicate the vision? Or is your leader proposing a vision that doesn’t align or contribute to the vision of the organization? If so, I’m sure it’s creating problems. What should you do?
If you have any leadership ability, you have ideas about vision. You undoubtedly see possibilities. You want to go somewhere, and you want to take people with you so that you can achieve something together. But how you respond matters. Take a look at the following ways people react to vision. The first three responses are negative. The last three are better, with each of them increasingly positive.
1. ATTACK IT—CRITICIZE AND SABOTAGE THE VISION
Some people set themselves up in opposition to the vision, no matter if the boss is a bad leader or a good one who does a fantastic job of communicating it. That’s just a fact. Why?
They didn’t help create the vision. Most people don’t like change, and whenever someone begins casting a vision, change is inevitable. People’s attitudes toward change are different when they help create it. Participation increases ownership. When you’re an owner, you see things differently. You step up. You take better care of whatever it is.
They don’t understand the vision. Just because a vision is clear and compelling doesn’t mean that everyone really understands it. Different kinds and styles of communication don’t connect equally for everybody. If a leader is really wise, she communicates the vision in many ways, in many settings, using many methods.
They don’t agree with the vision. Some people react negatively to a vision because they think it’s impossible to achieve. Others—though it happens much less often—because they think it’s too small. Still others balk because the vision has changed since the time they originally signed on. But more often than not, the real issue has more to do with the leader. If people disagree with the vision, it’s often because they have a problem with the person who cast it. No matter how good the vision is, if people don’t believe in the leader, they will have problems buying in to the vision.
They don’t know the vision. When it comes to results, there is absolutely no difference between people not knowing an organization’s vision and the organization not having a vision at all. The inevitable result is dissatisfaction and discouragement.
They feel unneeded to achieve the vision. There are three different kinds of attitudes when it comes to enlisting people to help fulfill a vision. The first one says, “We’re going to do this with or without you.” The second says, “We sure would like you to help us do this.” The third says, “We can’t do this without you.” You can guess which one inspires and motivates people to participate and give their best.
Old-style autocratic leaders may have been able to get away with the first type of attitude, but that doesn’t fly with people today, at least not in cultures where people are free to make choices. The second approach sometimes works, but neither is as effective as the third. People who understand how important their part is are motivated to persevere and work with excellence, even in the face of obstacles and problems. People want to feel needed.
They aren’t ready for the vision. It may be sad to say, but some people are not ready—emotionally, intellectually, or professionally—to step up, embrace the vision, and help to make it happen. If they are willing but unable, then they can be trained and developed. If they are neither willing nor able, then there may not be much you can do to help them.
2. IGNORE IT—DO THEIR OWN THING
Some people may not attack the vision, but they don’t support it either. Instead, they pretend it doesn’t exist and do their own thing. Obviously, this is not helpful to the organization. If your boss isn’t leading, don’t ignore the vision just because you’re frustrated. It will ultimately make you look like you’re not a team player.
One leader I spoke to, who for many years worked as a mid-level leader, said that he remembers a time when his boss wanted him to confront an employee on a dress code issue. The problem for this leader was that he didn’t agree with the policy. But he believed in the larger vision of the organization and wanted to support his leader, so he followed through with the confrontation. It turned out to be especially difficult because the employee thought the rule was petty. But the mid-level leader firmly supported his leader. The employee never knew that this leader actually agreed with the employee, not with his boss.
3. ABANDON IT—LEAVE THE ORGANIZATION
If the vision violates your principles or doesn’t speak to what you value deep down, leaving the organization may be the appropriate action. Sometimes that is the best option—leaving with honor. That way you are neither undermining the vision, nor are you endorsing something with which you cannot agree. I must mention one caution. If you find yourself in a situation where you are considering leaving an organization, make sure you’re not doing it because of selfishness or ego.
4. ADAPT TO IT—FIND A WAY TO ALIGN WITH THE VISION
At the very least, a good employee finds a way to align himself with the vision of his organization, so this is where you need to start. David Branker told me the story of Bret, a middle manager whose job was to provide computer support and data tracking for an organization’s training department. Bret was frustrated because he didn’t think the job he was asked to do was contributing significantly to the company’s vision.
Instead of sulking or complaining, he approached his leader to talk about the issue. Together, they discovered how his department might add greater value to the organization by creating systems that used technology to make training faster, more efficient, and more cost-effective. By aligning himself with the vision, Bret not only furthered the mission, added value to the organization, and improved the bottom line, but he also found greater personal fulfillment.
5. CHAMPION IT—TAKE THE VISION AND MAKE IT A REALITY
Vision may begin with one person, but it is accomplished only through the efforts of many people. As long as your leader’s vision doesn’t contradict the vision of the organization, try working to fulfill it. Strive to take the vision from me to we. John W. Gardner said, “The prospects never looked brighter and the problems never looked tougher. Anyone who isn’t stirred by both of those statements is too tired to be of much use to us in the days ahead.”
When leaders in the middle of an organization don’t support the vision, they neither champion it nor transfer it to their followers. As a result, the people they lead often don’t contribute to the overall success of the organization. You can help to prevent this. If you know and understand the vision of the organization, communicate it. Become a conduit of information to your team to help all of you make a positive contribution to the organization.
6. ADD VALUE TO IT
The most positive response to vision is to go beyond championing it and to actually add value to it. At this point, the vision becomes something more. It has greater value to the leader, greater value to the recipients of the vision, and greater value to the person who contributed to it.
Not everyone gets the opportunity to add value to the vision. The prerequisite is championing the vision as it already exists. You can do that even if you work for a boss who doesn’t lead well.
If your boss isn’t communicating the vision, then become a vision champion for the organization yourself. Communicate it to help create an environment of productivity and success for the people in your area of responsibility. And do your best to keep people with a different vision—especially a destructive one—from rushing in and filling the void created by your leader.
BAD BOSSES
Russian writer Leo Tolstoy began his novel Anna Karenina this way: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” A similar idea can be expressed about leaders. All good leaders share many characteristics, but bad leaders come in quite a few varieties. Here are a few:
INSECURE LEADERS
Insecure leaders think everything is about them, and as a result, every action, every piece of information, every decision is put through their filter of self-centeredness. When someone on their team performs exceptionally well, they fear being outshone, and they often try to keep her from rising up. When someone on their team does poorly, they react in anger because it makes them look bad.
More than anything else, insecure leaders desire the status quo—for everyone but themselves. They are like the company president who is reported to have sent a memo to the personnel manager with the following message: “Search the organization for alert, aggressive young leaders capable of stepping into my shoes. And when you find them—fire them!”
One friend I talked to while writing this book said that he once worked for a leader who had one basic leadership principle: keep everyone off balance. If someone working for him started feeling a little too secure, he would “shake him up.”
In an organization, security flows downward. When leaders are insecure, they often project that insecurity down to the people below them. If you work for an insecure person, not only will you have to work to deflect that individual’s insecurity from yourself, but you will also have to work harder to “break the chain” and create security for the people who work for you. If you don’t, the people under your care will suffer.
VISIONLESS LEADERS
Leaders who lack vision create two immediate problems for the people who work for them. First, they fail to provide direction or incentive to move forward. Second, they almost always lack passion. They have no fire—and no fuel to keep themselves and their people going. That doesn’t create the kind of positive environment that is exciting to work in.
We’ve already looked at the many ways people respond to vision. If you’re leader lacks vision, as I said, you may need to communicate the organization’s vision to the members of your team and remind them how your team contributes. You can show passion, even if your boss doesn’t.
INCOMPETENT LEADERS
Incompetent leaders are ineffective, and they often stay that way. They are trouble, not only for the people they lead, but also for their entire organization. Incompetent leaders are “lids” on the parts of the organization they lead. The Law of the Lid in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership states “Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness.” If you work with an incompetent leader, everyone on the team will have to work harder to make up for his deficiencies. In time, the truth may come out that the team is carrying the boss, and not the other way around.
SELF-CENTERED LEADERS
Self-centered leaders attempt to advance at the expense of everyone around them. An executive I interviewed said that one of the leaders he worked for earlier in his career was someone who selfishly hoarded all the perks that came with his leadership position. Because he experienced this, now that the executive is a top leader himself, he makes it a point to share the perks of leadership with the people who work for him. That’s good advice for anyone in a leadership position anywhere in an organization. Share whatever you have with the people below you, and they will work harder for you.
CHAMELEON LEADERS
President Lyndon Baines Johnson used to tell the story of a young, unemployed schoolteacher who came to the Texas hill country during the Depression in search of a job. When the local school board asked him whether the world was round or flat, the would-be teacher panicked, fearing a trap, and blurted out, “I can teach it both ways!”
That’s the chameleon leader’s reaction when you try to pin him down. When people follow a chameleon leader, they never know how he will react. As a result, valuable time and energy that everyone could use to get work done is often wasted in trying to predict and anticipate the leader’s next move and which personality he’s wearing that day.
Your best bet is to try to insulate yourself as much as possible from a chameleon boss’s mood and personality swings. Focus on getting your job done and fulfilling the organization’s vision, not trying to please your boss—because you won’t be able to predict what it will take.
POLITICAL LEADERS
Similar to chameleon leaders are political leaders. They can be just as difficult to pin down, but where emotional issues often fuel the chameleon leader’s problems, political leaders are motivated by the desire to get ahead. It’s hard to follow people whose decisions are based on political ambitions rather than the mission, the good of the organization, or the well-being of the people. They are like the mayor who was asked where he stood on a particular issue. He answered, “Well, some of my friends are for it. Some are against it. As for me, I’m for my friends.” Once again, try not to get involved in the politics, and as much as you can, insulate yourself from him.
CONTROLLING LEADERS
Have you ever worked for someone who wants to be in the middle of everything you do? Few things are more frustrating for a competent person. It’s difficult to generate momentum when the person you work for is continually interrupting your progress by micromanaging you.
People who micromanage others are often driven by one of two things: the desire for perfection, which is unobtainable, or the belief that no one can do a job as well as they can, which really boils down to their thinking others’ contributions aren’t as valuable as their own. Neither makes for positive working conditions for the people answering to them.
The first thing you can do when working for this kind of boss is lead yourself well, which I discuss in the next chapter. You can also communicate continually what you’re accomplishing. Unfortunately, this takes time. But if you keep your boss continually in the loop, he may try to control you less. And if you over-communicate, he may even get to the point where he asks you for less information and stops trying to control you.
LIMITATIONS ON YOU
One of the toughest things about working for a weak leader is that you often can’t be sure of where you stand. This creates tension and confusion. If your boss doesn’t like what you do, she can respond by firing you, demoting you, or moving you to another area of the business. If that does not create tension, nothing will. Adding to that tension are some other factors:
1. LACK OF EMPOWERMENT
How much authority and responsibility does your boss give you, and how clear are the lines? You may have some power to make some decisions. But you also lack power. The authority you do possess is not your own. And if you overstep your authority, you can get yourself into real trouble. Not everyone experiences the freedom to succeed—and safely fail. How clearly the lines of authority and responsibility have been drawn greatly impacts your state of mind. The more vaguely the lines are drawn, the greater the potential for stress.
2. UNDERMINED INITIATIVE
If you’re a naturally good leader, you probably don’t think in terms of boundaries; instead, you think in terms of opportunities. You’re an initiator. After all, the number one characteristic of leaders is the ability to make things happen. Under a good boss, this trait often leads to the expansion of responsibilities. Under a bad boss, it often leads to conflict.
You need to realize that the stronger your natural desire to initiate, the greater the potential for tension and conflict with a weak leader. If you continually push the limits without tact or wisdom, it’s likely you will rub others the wrong way, especially if your initiative makes your boss feel threatened.
3. AN ENVIRONMENT THAT DOESN’T VALUE LEADERSHIP
Every organization has its own unique environment. If you have a military background, you can’t walk into a corporate environment and expect it to function like the army or marines. If your experience is in large corporations, and you go to work in a mom-and-pop business, you will have problems if you don’t adapt. A small business owner wouldn’t do well in a military environment without making changes to the way they lead. That’s just common sense.
How much of a factor is the environment of your organization? Are you having difficulty because you’re not only bucking your boss but also fighting the culture of the entire organization?
You need to assess that because if your boss can’t or won’t lead and he’s representative of the culture of the entire organization, you’re always going to have a difficult time there—unless widespread changes occur across the board.
4. LACK OF CLEAR JOB PARAMETERS
Have you ever noticed the level of tension you experience when starting a new job? It’s pretty high, isn’t it? The less familiar the work, the greater the tension. Why? Because you don’t know what’s really expected of you.
That may be how you feel working for a bad boss. You may not know what’s expected of you. If you’re working without a job description or clear expectations, you won’t feel like you’re on solid ground. This is another source of daily tension.
5. LACK OF APPRECIATION
When you work in the middle of an organization under a weak boss, you may not get much public recognition or appreciation. That’s just the way it is. The greater your desire to receive credit and recognition, the more frustrated you are likely to become. You need to decide for yourself if you receive enough satisfaction to keep you going where you are.
If the leader you have to follow isn’t a good leader, it doesn’t mean that you can’t succeed. But to be frank, it will be more difficult. So, what can you do? You can always quit. But what if you love the organization you work for? What if you believe in the vision and want to advance it? What if you enjoy the other people you work with and want to help them? That makes quitting a difficult choice. And if you do quit, what if you find yourself in the same kind of situation in a new organization? What if you leave this job to escape a bad boss, and you find yourself working for—another bad boss?
The good news is you do not have to be held hostage by your circumstances or position. You can learn to make the best of a difficult situation. And you can take the high road while doing it. You don’t have to become the CEO of the organization or the head of the department to lead effectively. You can make a positive impact through your leadership where you are, even if you report to someone who is one of the bad-boss types I described. How? By leading yourself well. By finding ways to work with your boss. By developing your influence wherever you are. By avoiding the most common landmines that come from working with a bad boss. And by growing and proving your value every day.
I admit: these solutions won’t fix your situation overnight. And you will continue to face challenges. Few things can be more maddening than working for an ineffective leader. But you can’t control your leader. You have no control over anyone but yourself. So that’s where you need to start.