The disconnected leader

A fortnight ago, I wrote on “The Connected Leader”. Today, I want to address the opposite type of leader.

Leadership never operates in isolation. It is about and for people. It is known by the quality of service it can provide to followers. To effectively do this, it is essential that the leader walks where the followers walk. This is because true leadership is a disposition before it is a position.

Disconnected leaders lead from the head and not from the heart. When a leader is more fixated on his position and self-preservation in the role than the essence of the position, he will abuse the very people that he is supposed to use the position to serve. His relationship with those he leads will be largely transactional. He is a slave to systems and structures that protect his position more than they project a vision. Instead of using structures to serve people, they merely use people to uphold a system, the change of which may threaten or erode their power base. This is what breeds and perpetuates dictatorship.

Disconnected leaders Distance themselves from the very people they are meant to lead. Rather than connect with people, they prefer to live in their own bubble of invincibility in order to create a mystique around their persona. These types of leaders are those who shut themselves in their offices all day long because they see any attempt to enter a subordinate’s office or mingle with other people even during breaks as a sign of weakness which would expose them to disrespect.

Do you know a leader who scoffs or gets angry at hearing other people express opinions contrary to his? Intolerance is a forte of disconnected leaders. They seem to be the ones who know it all and any alternative opinion must be shot down because they see it as an affront to their authority. At meetings, they seek to impose their opinion and position on others. Even when they allow others to talk, it is to let them know that their opinions hold no water. They would usually mark down those who disagree with them and if possible, end up firing them!

The disconnected leader Subordinates relationship to rules, oblivious to the fact that in any human organization, as much as rules are essential to maintain order, the rules are made to serve the people and the vision. For this reason, when rules threaten the people and the essence of the organization, they must give way. Picture this scenario. One of the top performers in an organization was faced with an emergency that warranted him rushing his only child who had a domestic accident while getting ready for school to the hospital. Consequently, he came about two hours late to the office. It was his first time of doing such since joining the company two years earlier. But the rule book says that if you are late to work by thirty minutes, you would lose your pay for half of the day and if by one hour or more, you lose pay for the day. The disconnected leader will enforce this rule to the letter in this circumstance even when he is fully aware of the circumstances surrounding it and the sterling record of the staff concerned! Disconnected leaders are more interested in their personal agenda than in the well-being of the people that help them in realizing it.

This insensitivity produces Callous leadership characterized by a cruel disregard for others and their feelings.

Everything around the disconnected leader is Organized to repress or suppress others, especially when he sees a spark of brilliance or excellence that potentially poses a challenge to his ludicrous leadership style or functional mediocrity. Because he derives his identity from his vantage position of power, he builds and sustains structures around his position that leave no one in doubt about who is in charge! This enables him to dispense service selectively as if he is doing people a favour. This is a trait that is very common with the Nigerian political elite.

I learnt about a former Nigerian bank CEO who personified this trait so well. According to the staff of the bank at the time he was CEO, even if you were in the elevator before he came in, you had to get out. If he met you on the stairs, you had to go back all the way to the next lower floor to give him passage. Failure to do this meant that your job was on the line. His vehicular convoy rivaled that of any governor. He was said to be so callous and power-drunk that when the regulatory authorities went for his jugular, it was easy for the bank’s workforce to throw him under the bus!

Disconnected leaders are Nebulous. Nobody around them really knows what their vision is. Truth be told, beyond the position and its attendant privileges, it is doubtful if they themselves know. Nothing around them is clear. Nobody around them knows what their focus is beyond their daily imposing presence and power show.

Their excessive preoccupation with self and consolidating themselves in power makes them unrepentant Narcissists who want to arrogate the power of life and death over others to themselves.

Because the number one concern of the disconnected leader is himself, he always functions in Extortionist mode, demanding from others the resources, attention, loyalty, time, efforts etc., that he himself could never give to anyone.

For extortionist leaders, Tyranny is their middle name. Their primary agenda is to subdue people just to oppress them. Subdued followership are usually willing victims of their oppressors.

Disconnected leaders operate with an Entitlement mindset that believes that their followers owe them instead of the other way round. They never see that the legitimacy for their position derives from the very people they are meant to serve. In a tale of the tail wagging the dog, they expect the people to serve them and worship the very ground on which they walk. The entire developing world is replete with examples of this kind of distorted image of leadership.

Oblivious to their accountability to followership, disconnected leaders are very Disrespectful to the people that they lead. To amplify their position and power, they usually address their subordinates in condescending language with a lot of name-calling and abuse to boot. They believe that their office confers on them the power to make others feel less than human. They bark orders at their subordinates and will not hesitate to rubbish them in public especially where they want to make a point about how powerful they are.

These were the traits that manifested in the Pharisees and Sadducees in the time of Jesus that made him tongue-lash them on many occasions. His style of leadership that connected with people was a slap on the face of their stiff and dry religious system that insulated the people from the love and compassion of God that Jesus represented. No wonder the ordinary people flowed towards Jesus to the anguish of the Pharisaic leadership.

May God give us leaders who truly have a heart for people!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

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