Cowardly leaders who are in positions of authority and power have the clout to demand. However, being in authority, and being a Leader are two entirely different things.
How to “look” like a leader
Therefore, cowardly leaders must develop shortcuts. By necessity, they must look like leaders even when they aren’t. Some of these methods include:
- Pretending to build and lead a team- This pretense is based on having “fun” staff meetings, telling jokes, cutting up, maybe even bringing in food from time to time. The intent is to show, when everyone is together, that everyone is one big, happy, family. What the cowardly leader usually never grasps is that the remaining 198 hours of the week, when he is a jerk, issuing orders, countermanding previous orders, ignoring existing policies, and falling over himself saying “yes, sir” or “yes, ma’am” to the boss, carries far more influence. The day-to-day atmosphere, with an organization managed as a dictatorship, is what employees remember. Not donuts once a week.
- Self-deprecating to his boss- The cowardly leader often will give an “oh, shucks, I’m just a lowly servant” attitude to his boss. His boss may not be aware that this facade is just that. The real authority figure is unleashed outside the big boss’s purview. The employees bear the brunt, but to the Mayor, the County Executive, or the School Board Chairman, the cowardly leader is a loyal, hard-working, loyal employee with “everyone’s” best interests at heart. Everyone meaning the people in power. The employees? Not so much.
- Lying- Cowardly leaders lie. Cowardly leaders manipulate reports. They take data from staff and order it to be manipulated. Only when it says what the cowardly leader wants it to say is it forwarded. They say, and do, whatever it takes to keep themselves looking as good and useful as possible. Lying is second-nature and is justified, particularly in a political arena where staying in power is the ultimate objective.
- Justifying why people leave- Travis Bradbury, a Forbes contributor, says, “…managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers.” This is particularly true of cowardly leaders. I worked for an organization that is on their third Director in four years, one division has been decimated due to turnover and resignations forced by the cowardly leader in charge, and morale is non-existent. However, when asked, the authority in power justifies the turnover. The employees were not getting the job done. They were incompetent. There was poor leadership (ignoring the 600 lb gorilla in the room- he in fact is the “leadership” in charge of the organization.)
“It’s not my fault”
The cowardly leader does not take accountability for what is going on in his organization. After all, what is happening is not “his” fault. The fault lies with the incompetence of the employees. Or a lack of loyalty by the employees. Or a refusal by the employees to adhere to the day-to-day whims of the authority. Anything but a lack of true leadership.
Trying to look, and act like a leader, is miles apart from being a Leader. Cowardly leaders never figure that out. And no amount of donuts will help.
II-55
