There needs to be a class called, “Political Science of Everyday Life”. Heading up initiatives in multiple organizations and working on simultaneous projects in the community, I consistently encounter challenges as I grow in leadership. The challenges I will highlight below are faced by other people and mentors and as well. They are worth noting as I do not feel we highlight them enough, so we can effectively identify it when it is happening–You know. Call a thing, “a thing”!
Constant undermining is underwhelming and particularly annoying. I see how easy it is to do, especially where there is no physical product, but where your actions are building toward an outcome. Here are a few things I’ve noticed that can give rise to a much darker side of leadership:
- People run with half-truths, empty information. They create their own stories and drawing important decisions based on that information. People come to information matrices at various points in the process. They see one conflict and extrapolate that that’s how it has always been in stead of determining where we are, how we got their and how we can move forward.
- People think they can do it better than you, yet have not walked a day in your shoes to even know the work you do on the back end. It is unfortunate when it comes from people that you respect.
- People will find every unfounded grievance in the book about you without ever meeting you, and most certainly have never brought those issues to you directly. Yet, they take it to the streets fast–Yes, professionally gossip and slander exists.
- People will take your ideas as their own or say what you just said 5 minutes after you said it and now everyone is in agreement. Or you can present an idea and get blank stares, say it two months later, and the response is “oh we should have thought about that”. You’re sitting back thinking Are we really doing this right now…lol.
- People act as though they are doing so much. These ones are all talk and no action. They give off the appearance of being ‘busy’, yet they have not produced outcomes, but yet they complain and do 1-4. Here you are, as a leader, waiting on them to produce what you need, so you can move forward to push the organization toward its goals. There they are left thinking about trivialities.
- You set direction, but they move with their own agendas while doing 1-5.
- People attempt to devalue your contribution when you are they one holding the entire project together!….while doing 1-6!
The need to protect your reputation based on the on seemingly “invisible” and truly unnecessary power struggles forces can be overwhelming. This is the weight of the world that falls on many leaders’ shoulders. With this burden, people in leadership roles can succumb to bitterness, anxiety, and rage–transforming good leaders into a very closed-minded, defensive, and hardened leaders people in ‘high places’.
All of this is indeed unnecessary if we are truly working as a team across any spectrum of life. If only everyone would do their part from top to bottom, left to right! Some people still have this hierarchical mindset where they want to rule. This is a new age. Here are a few of my thoughts on what leadership is in 2018.
- Leadership is going outside of institutional boundaries to see the big picture and understanding all pieces of the puzzle to see where we can maximize value.
- Leadership is communicating effectively to seek clarity and compromise–not to dictate judgement.
- Leadership is looking at the strengths of others and seeing how you can cultivate it as a mentor.
- Leadership is tasking those individual who do 1-4 above to see if they can deliver. This opens the door 1) for them to see the big picture and get a grasp on the details. 2) more importantly it opens the door for mentoring.
- Leadership is going beyond self-promotion to uplift the entire team.
But hey….that’s just my humble opinion, I do not have all the answers. What is your take?
Seek first to understand and then to be understood. ‘ Steven R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
