As I have researched and written these Cowardly Leadership blogs, I’ve discovered that regardless of position or degree of importance, cowardly leaders fall into one of two general categories:
- Those that mistakenly, but sincerely, think and believe that they are “right” simply because they were elected, or appointed, to their office. They must be correct. Or omnipotent. Or simply smarter than us. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been elected or appointed.
- Those that couldn’t care less if they are right or not. Being right, or correct, or smart, doesn’t matter. It’s all about politics and power. They have the position so they will do what they want to do. Additionally, they will force their employees (that is, if they want to stay employees), to do what they are told.
The first group are naive and/or idealistic. The second group are neither. They are simply in it for the power and a stepping stone to the next office.
Common Traits
Regardless in which of the two groups a cowardly leader falls, they share a common trait: they never fail.
There are hundreds of articles and books in the marketplace regarding the value of failure. You can’t win if you don’t play. A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships were built for. Many, many others.
Robert Herjavec, one of the Sharks on ABC-TV’s Shark Tank, writes that “We need to understand failure to be able to measure success, don’t we?Failure is a lesson that should catapult you into success – and I am certain that I wouldn’t be where I am today without failure.”
He adds the following: “Failure will do one of two things to us: it will either force us to cower into a safe place where comfort becomes more important than achievement; or it will stretch the limits of our ambition. The latter will inspire us to apply the lessons we learned from the failure to our next venture.”
I agree with that with the following important caveat: ONLY if you have the advantage of working for a true Leader. The true Leader will encourage stretching limits, counsel and assist in lessons learned, and nudge you back out to do it again.
But When You Work for a Cowardly Leader…
You cower in the corner. Maybe not the first time, maybe not the second or third or fourth time. But eventually, you cower in the corner. Because you know what’s coming. No support. No counsel. No encouragement to try again. Because-
Cowardly Leaders NEVER fail!
They are smarter than you and me because they were elected or appointed to where they are now. Or, they could give a rat’s ass how smart or not they may be or appear. That’s immaterial. They are in a position of power, and you aren’t. You answer to them.
If you follow protocol and procedure, and it’s not what they want, then you are wrong for not supporting the politically elected power structure. If you point out other methods, opportunities, and courses of action, you are accused of not being a team player. If an employee or project in your area “fails”, then you are to blame for not being on top of the situation.
As Herjavec concludes, “Everyone fails – we just can’t afford to dwell on it. All we can do is identify where and how we failed, choose the best way to avoid repeating it, then move on.”
Unfortunately, when you are in a cowardly leadership environment, the exception is that everyone fails- EXCEPT the cowardly leader.
II-51
