Behaviors that block leadership success

In my 18 years of corporate life, I experienced a handful of truly amazing managers and leaders. Both young and more seasoned, these men and women – each with their own unique personalities, communication styles and visions – had the ability to bring out the best in me and my work, and in others, and we all wanted to do our best for them.

They had a way of managing that made us feel we were a valuable and integral part of the team. They facilitated the creation of a “safe space” where we were truly excited (and honored) to contribute our best talents and abilities towards important shared outcomes that were clear and meaningful.

Below are six negative behaviors that will thwart your success as a leader, and crush the potential of your employees:

1. They hover and micromanage

In some ways, great leadership is similar to great parenting – leaders need to get out of the way of their employees and encourage them to be self-reliant, self-confident, resourceful and independent in their work. So many leaders and managers demonstrate what I call “perfectionistic overfunctioning” – habitually doing more than is appropriate, healthy or necessary – which then cripples the growth of their employees.

Tip: If you can’t allow your employees to do what they are paid to do without your constant intervention, then you have a problem you need to solve. The first place to look is within yourself to identify if this pattern is something you exhibit chronically in both your personal life as well as your professional life.

2. They need to be right

Sadly, many people who rise to high levels as leaders aren’t necessarily equipped with emotional strength, self-awareness and self-regulation. Many people at high levels exhibit narcissistic tendencies and find it extremely difficult to be challenged. They need to be right and will fight to the death to vindicate themselves and appear that they are always infallible and “winners.” This need to be right thwarts everyone around you. No one wants to work in a situation where they can’t express themselves openly, and where they feel that it’s a fight to be right or prove yourself at every turn.

Tip: Watch yourself – do you find it hard to be challenged? Do you feel yourself getting angry and defensive if someone tells you that they don’t agree? If so, look more deeply at why being “right” is so important to you.

Negative reports about Sugar, campaign of calumny from mischief makers ― Family

3. They can’t move away from the “individual contribution” model rather than leading

Many of us have heard of the Peter Principle, a ground-breaking observation (that emerged from the 1969 book The Peter Principle by Dr. Laurence J. Peter) that the tendency in most organizational hierarchies is for employees to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they finally reach a level of incompetence.

Leaders have often been elevated to a leadership role because they were great individual contributors. But that “individual contributor” focus can hinder their leadership success. Now, their functional expertise is less essential for success than their ability to effectively lead and manage others in the “doing” of the work.  Yet they haven’t been trained sufficiently to lead, nor have they learned to let go of believing that their individual efforts are what matter most.

Tip: If you’ve been promoted to a leadership role, you’ll need to understand that leadership is a different endeavor, and what made you successful in the past isn’t necessarily the same as what you need to succeed in leading and managing others to success.

4. They aren’t teaching what they know

Several years ago when I was asked to teach a graduate class at New York University on Managing Inclusion and Cultural Diversity, I delved deeply into some seminal works on leadership, and one that had an impact on me was Noel Tichy’s teachings on the need for leaders to share their Teachable Point of View, “a cohesive set of ideas and concepts that a person is able to articulate clearly to others” and “a mission that is inspiring and clearly worth achieving.”

Tip: If you haven’t been teaching your employees your teachable point of view and sharing how you make decisions, the ideals and concepts that guide you and what drives your thinking and decisions, then you’re not leading as effectively as you need to.

5. They aren’t successfully communicating the hard stuff

Leaders can’t always share happy news and positive feedback. Again, just like parents, great leaders need to be honest, transparent and truthful, and offer constructive criticism or bad news that’s hard to hear but essential for success and growth. You can’t lead well if you want to be everyone’s best friend and never upset anyone, or if you can’t face and share the challenging truth in a trustworthy way.

Tip: Speaking powerfully and telling the hard truth in ways that engender trust and loyalty is not an easy thing, and for most of us it doesn’t come naturally. Training and outside help is often required to build your ability to communicate effectively when sharing difficult news and information.

6. They aren’t helping others find their best work

Finally, great leadership involves a process of helping employees contribute at their highest levels. It’s other-focused, and your job is to facilitate your employees’ growth, contribution and excellence. To do that, it’s vitally important to help people:

*Identify their top, natural strengths and talents

*Leverage those strengths more fully

*Connect their personal mission with their professional goals

*Understand the key goals of the organization and find meaning and purpose in supporting those goals

*Deal effectively with the specific challenges to their success

The more you can support employees to move forward toward achieving their ultimate visions for their professional lives, the more success they will experience. If you aren’t focused on helping others thrive at the highest level, your leadership approach will fall short in bringing out the best in others.

Tip: Take time this month to understand more fully your employees’ goals and visions for their professional lives. Have a discussion about their natural strengths and talents and what they love to do most in their work. Support them in building a development plan that taps into those talents and visions.