Leadership backlash (II)

“Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.” That did it—pushed them over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him. But Jesus slipped away, getting out of the Temple.” John 8.58-59 Message.

“I will gladly spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me.” 2 Corinthians 12.15

We have been discussing leadership backlash. Leadership usually comes with glitz, glamour and gratification but sometimes in your leadership journey you will experience backlash—times when due to no fault of yours or sometimes due to an occasional error you experience unexpected and usually negatively vigorous reaction. At times like this the heat is on and the leader is under attack.

Many things can cause leadership backlash. We will look at crisis powered by people you are leading.

Leadership is about people and where you have more than one person there will always be the possibility of conflict, crisis and misunderstanding (it takes two to tangle). Everybody under your leadership is coming from different backgrounds; they have different experiences, different agenda, different perspectives, attitudes and expectations etc.

The challenge of leadership is to harness, harmonize and channel these myriads of issues to effect a smooth and effective execution of the corporate vision. Inability to do this will always lead to crisis, instability, disappointment and sometimes insubordination, subversion, party spirit, rebellion, etc. and this can lead to a backlash.

One major reason for the above crisis is the leader focusing and being concerned mainly with actions and not influencing followers’ beliefs. To avoid and minimize such crisis consciously influence the beliefs of your followers (their thinking patterns, opinions, convictions, allegiance) and not just their actions (pursuits, activities, events, assignments, performance).

You must be the most predominant and preeminent, authoritative voice in the organization. You must regularly meet with your followers (virtually or physically) to influence their beliefs about the organsation and their input. There must be only one voice and that voice should be yours. Having another voice is destructive. There can only be one captain in the ship. There can only be one vision—division is the presence of two voices/visions which will always lead to crisis and a backlash against the leader.

Position yourself to be the only voice without engaging in authoritarianism, manipulation, threats or witchcraft.

2) Engage your followers consciously and actively—virtually or physically

– Regular relevant training.

– Speak words of affirmation.

– Speak words of encouragement.

– Paint pictures of a better and glorious future in the organsation.

– Show appreciation – have a reward system.

– Have the milk of human kindness.

– Let people see it as a privilege to work with you.

– Elicit trust.

– Open communication.

3) Prayer.