You might want to read a related post on this here
Working For A Cowardly Leader
Benjamin Snyder writes in, Five Signs You’re Working for a Toxic Boss, on CNBC.com, that two of the most difficult traits to deal with are when the boss is incompetent, and the boss is arrogant. When an elected official immediately becomes a self-appointed expert, both incompetence and arrogance are on display. And when a political appointment who has little knowledge or skill is in a position of authority, incompetence is most often the result.
I’ve written about the fact that most Cowardly Leaders have the talent to talk a good game. They have a gift, a flair in fact, of saying what the important person in the room wants to hear, regardless of the facts or wisdom of the statements. It’s all about the schmooze. Incompetence and arrogance enter when the Cowardly Leader then expects the staff to follow through and accomplish what he has promised. OR, when he promises one thing to a political leader, then makes a different promise to a second political leader. This happens more often than the average citizen realizes, and usually it takes great work and effort on the part of committed professional staff to try and make the promises realities.
Unfortunately, there is no way around working for a incompetent person in power, and knowing that although you know more than they do, they call the shots and make the decisions- often with little input from the professional staff they supervise.
Listen to your staff
I know, without question, that the people who need to be reading this don’t. The cowardly leaders we all know about and have worked for would never recognize themselves, and even if they did, they wouldn’t care. They are in the positions of power already, so what possible benefit is there to change their tactics?
So, this is for everyone else who doesn’t want to become a cowardly leader. One of the great pieces of advice that every Naval officer is given early in their career is to “listen to your Chief.” That means to listen to the senior enlisted guy in the organization, almost always a Master Chief, Senior Chief, or Chief Petty Officer. They are the constant, and the consistency of an organization as Commanding Officers and leadership come and go.
At the civilian level, this easily translates into “listen to your staff.” Listen to the people who have worked there a long time, know what works and what doesn’t, and have good suggestions on how to make things better.
Cowardly Leaders don’t want to know that. THEY have all the answers. But for the rest of us, some of the best advice ever is to have regular meetings (and at their workplace-not yours-is even better) with the long-standing experience front-line employees. There is no better, and faster, way to improve an organization.
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