THE COMMON ILLS OF LEADERSHIP

The are eight common ills of leadership:-

1. Leaders who do no listen

Refuse to listen or turn down good advice, block others from giving good suggestions or ideas. They develop blindspots. The implication is: they are ineffective, non-relevant to the real issues on hand, waste everyone's time and the patience of the people.

2. Leaders who do not practice what they preach

Tendency towards hypocrisy, do not make good promises, inconsistent, unprincipled, not commited. The implication is: lose their credibility and effectiveness in influencing othes to do things.

3. Leaders who practise favouritism

Leaders tend to treat staffs unjustified and double standard. The implication is: lose the trust and respect of their staffs, people not happy, dissatisfaction, weaken staff morale and reduced their performance level.
4. Leaders who intimidate others

Powerful leaders often abuse their power and intimidate their subordinates. Staffs are not encouraged to speak their minds or be creative. People are afraid to speak the truth. The implication is: leaders bocome unaware of the real things facing the organisation.

5. Leaders who demoralise others

Leaders incurable habit of taking ever opportunity to shoot people down and quick to critise others, erode the self-confidence, do not building people. Such leaders cannot produce their best work. The implication is: their performance drops as their morale and motivation are adversely affected, bringing the whole organisation down.

6. Leaders who fail to create direction

Those having the power and title but have no strategic and contingency plan to deal with the uncertainty posed by a change in some conditions such as economic downturn. The implication is: such leaders often lead organisations to produce the same products or services in the same manner to the same old customers. It is disastrous.

7. Leaders who do not develop their people

Leaders do not know how to coach, delegate and train others. The implication is: this erroneous thinking retards the growth of everyone, the people below, the leaders themselves and the organisation as a whole.

8. Leaders who are complacent

They accept are inefficient and many of them are busy doing things which could be more cost effectively done by others. They become immune to customer complaints. The implication is: they think their companies can survive just by continuing doing the same thing the same old way come what may.

Conclusion

Having done so they should then take steps to eliminate those unhealthy leadership practices as they lead their people in the journey towards becoming change winners in the very challenging environment ahead.

Source: Victor S.L.Tan, New Straits Times, Saturday, May 5, 2001