Five Ways to Deal With Cowardly Leadership
Last week I outlined four of the most egregious traits that Cowardly Leaders possess. Turning over their authority and power to others. Being yes men regardless of the topic. Becoming self appointed experts. I witnessed that first hand recently in an election where a council member with no municipal experience whatsoever-none-self proclaimed he was the expert in hiring procedures. Confidence is believing you’re good. Cockiness is believing you’re better than anyone else. Hubristic arrogance is believing it with no experience to back it up.
How Can We Deal With Cowardly Leadership?
The $64,000 question- sometimes a lot more than that, in fact- is what to do about it. What do you do, and more to the point, what can you do? Cowardly Leaders are in positions of authority and power. They were elected to those positions by us, or were appointed to those positions by officials that we elected.
So what can we, the lowly citizen, the lone voter, your next-door neighbor, the front-line employee, really do when we encounter examples of Cowardly Leadership? During the next two weeks, we will explore five suggestions. Some are more difficult than others. In some cases it will involve looking in the mirror and determining how important your personal integrity and reputation are to you. Regardless, there is one constant to always keep in mind: We are their boss.
First- Set High Standards
In a previous blog, I write about mediocrity in our elected officials. Fast forward to the 9:10 mark below to watch a discussion about mediocre, safe “leadership” with an elected official.
Nathan Washburn and Benjamin Galvin, writing in the Harvard Business Review, recommend “using high standards to motivate employees.” Their point is that when leaders set high standards, employees will live up to those standards and perform better, thereby making the organization better. Numerous studies of elementary school children have proven that when teachers set high standards for their classes-even when the classes were of slower learning children- those classes performed better than classes where standards were lower.
I suggest turning this around. When leaders consistently and continuously adhere to low and/or “always done it that way” standards, it is up to the employees to set higher standards. It is up to the citizens to demand higher standards. When the elected officials say “improve your organization by 5%,” a department head should improve by 10%. Hire (or at least recommend) the best and most qualified candidate, rather than the politically expedient one. When the elected officials say, “we don’t think it’s important to evaluate our employees,” go to a meeting and ask why not.
Cowardly Leaders do not like high standards. You- the voter, the employee, the citizen- must demand more and higher standards, or nothing will ever change.
Second-Remind Them To Do What They Should Do, Not What They Want To Do
Do what you should do. Do what you campaigned to do, and what is in the best interests of the community you represent. It’s not rocket science, or rocket surgery for that matter.
Andy Molinsky, writing in The Harvard Business Review, says, “Many people are hesitant to step out of their regular roles and routines. The idea of putting yourself in a position to potentially fail can be frightening or stressful.”
Too often, political leaders set a campaign agenda, run and are elected, and then……are afraid of failing. Afraid of making the change. Or, immediately start running for re-election and therefore fail to address controversial issues. Molinsky also asks, “What drives you, what would you care about doing if there was nothing in your way?”
Why go to the trouble, time, and expense of running for an office, if you always run to the safe ground? As Simon Sinek, author of Leaders Eat Last, says: “If we want to achieve anything in the world, we have to get used to the idea that not everyone will like us.”
We the citizen must remind the people we elected that they need to be doing what they should do- the hard, difficult, cutting edge, forward thinking tasks. Not running for cover, passing the buck, letting others make the hard decisions.
Third- Demand Strategic Thinking
Yes, Prime Minister is a satirical British television series. In a recent show, a politician stated, “Something must be done, this is something, therefore, we must do it!”
Just a few days ago, I was disappointed, but not surprised, to read a post by one of the political leaders who has taken over leadership in city government. Despite all logic and basic planning principles to the contrary, he has arbitrarily determined that a large, multi-faceted project should be repeated in the same manner as 40 years ago. Demographics have changed, interests have changed, design standards have changed. But the exciting announcement was, “We are going to replace what was put there 40 years ago- let’s continue to do it that way.”
Ask for the five-year plan. Ask to see the Master Plan. Find out what your elected officials have in mind for your community. Read it, or at the very least read the Executive Summary, which every solid Strategic or Master Plan will have. Question your elected officials, or the politically appointed staff that they hire, if there are areas you don’t understand.
And if there isn’t a Master Plan or Strategic Plan? As the old saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
Kinda hard to have strategic thinking without a strategic plan…
Next Week
Next week we will finish this up with the final two methods to help you deal with Cowardly Leaders.
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