In Winning (Welch, 2005), Chapter 6, Jack describes the 4E’s + P framework for hiring employees. The fourth E stands for execute, the ability to get the job done. Jack’s Eight Rules for what leaders do, covered earlier in the course, describe an approach to leadership focused on building an organization where people can effectively execute a winning strategy. Specific characteristics underpin this kind of leadership, including a relentless drive to never settle for good enough (Bossidy & Charan, 2004). All of these traits require courage, and demand that leaders:
- Energize others: aligning with Jack’s rule about getting into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism. They create energy in others, they hire energetic individuals, and they help people maintain their momentum by celebrating short-term wins.
- Are decisive: facing tough decisions head-on rather than procrastinating and avoiding them. Doing this requires emotional strength.
- Are good at getting work done through others: setting milestones and watching for follow-through.
- Follow through: constantly clarifying what needs to be done, who will do it, and when they will do it. They provide the resources to meet milestones and monitor progress.
In becoming a leader who knows how to win, it is important to be aware of – and avoid – common leadership errors that can derail your career and your organization. These errors are the Six Sins of Leadership.
The Six Sins of Leadership In this course, we have already devoted thousands of words to discussing what leaders should do. But before we get much further along, there is much to be learned from exploring what leaders commonly get wrong. For it is in their failures that leaders often have the most impact, both on individuals and organizations.
JWI 510: Leadership in the 21st Century Lecture Notes
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Consider the following material with a critical eye. Do any Sins apply to your own behaviors? If so, self-awareness is the first step to corrective action. And for those of you who are not yet leaders, scrutiny is advised. Understanding where leaders you have worked for might have gone astray will serve you well in the future. Being a leader is perhaps the hardest challenge anyone will ever face. No matter how long you work at it, practicing the right behavior is a never-ending task. Knowing and avoiding the wrong behavior are never-ending tasks.
- Not Giving Self-Confidence Its Due Self-confidence is the lifeblood of success. When people have it, they’re bold. They try new things, offer ideas, exude positive energy, and cooperate with their colleagues instead of attempting to get ahead by bringing them down. When they lack self-confidence, it's just the opposite. People cower. They plod. They spread negativity with their words and gestures. You cannot unleash the creative power of individuals who doubt themselves. Leaders can never stop striving to develop self-confidence in their teams. The ways to do so are myriad. Make sure goals are challenging, but achievable. Give positive feedback. Remind your direct reports of what they do right.
- Muzzling Voice Perhaps the most frustrating way that leaders underperform is by over-talking. That is, they act like know-it-alls. They can tell you how the world works, what corporate is thinking, how it will backfire if you try this or that, and why you can’t possibly change the product for the better. Sometimes, such blowhards get their swagger from a few positive experiences, but usually, they're just victims of their own destructive personalities. Ultimately, the company ends up being a victim, too, because know-it-alls aren't just insufferable – they’re dangerous. They don’t listen, and that deafness makes it very hard for new ideas to get debated, expanded upon, or improved. No single person, no matter how smart, can take a business to its apex. For that, you need every voice to be heard. Know-it-all leadership creates a deadly silence.1
1 As CEO of GE, Jack decided to launch an initiative called “Work-Out,” where every employee of the company was given the opportunity to speak his or her mind about how work was done. The output was shocking. Terrific new ideas, long buried in bureaucracy or under the weight of know-it-all bosses, were set free, leading to an explosion of productivity and employee buy-in. After one such session, a middle-aged appliance worker approached Jack. “For 25 years, you paid for my hands,” he said. “You could have had my brain, too – for free.”
JWI 510: Leadership in the 21st Century Lecture Notes
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- Acting Phony Can you spot a phony? Of course, you can, and so can your people. Indeed, if there is one widespread human capability, it is sniffing out someone who is putting on airs, pretending to be who they are not, or just keeping their real self hidden. Too many leaders spend way too much time creating personas that put a wall between them and their employees. What a waste! Authenticity is what makes people love you. Visibly grappling with challenging problems, sweating the details, laughing, and caring – these are the activities that make people respond and feel engaged with what you're saying. Sure, some people will tell you that being mysterious grants you power as a leader. In reality, all it generates is fear. And, who wants to motivate that way?
- Lacking the Guts to Differentiate You only have to be in business for a few weeks to know that not all investment opportunities are created equal. But some leaders can't face that reality, and so, they sprinkle their resources like cheese on a pizza – a little bit everywhere. As a result, promising growth opportunities too often don’t get them the outsized infusions of cash and people they need. If they did that, someone might get offended during the resource-allocation process – someone like the manager of a weak business or the sponsor of a dubious investment proposal. But leaders who don’t differentiate do the most damage when it comes to people. Unwilling to deliver candid, rigorous performance reviews, they give every employee the same kind of bland, mushy, nice job sign-off. Then, when rewards are doled out, they give star performers little more than the laggards. You can call this egalitarian approach kind or fair – as these lousy leaders usually do – but it's just weakness. And when it comes to building a thriving organization where people have the chance to grow and succeed, weakness just doesn’t cut it.
- Fixation on Results at the Expense of Values Real leaders deliver! Oratory without results equals nothing. But leaders are committing a dereliction of duties if all they care about are the numbers. They also have to care about how those numbers came to be. Were the right behaviors practiced? Was the company's culture of integrity honored? Were people taken care of properly? Was the law obeyed, in both letter and spirit? Values are funny items in business. Companies love to talk about them. They like to hang them up on plaques in the lobby and boast about them to potential hires and customers. But they're meaningless if leaders don’t live and breathe them. Sometimes, that can take courage. It can mean letting go of a top performer who’s a brute to his colleagues, or not promoting a star who doesn’t share her best ideas with the team. That’s hard. And, yet, if you are a leader, this is a sin you can’t ignore. When you nail your results, make sure you can also report back to a crowded room, "We did this the right way, according to our values."
JWI 510: Leadership in the 21st Century Lecture Notes
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- Skipping the Fun Part What is it about celebrating that makes managers so nervous? Maybe throwing a party doesn't seem professional, or it makes people worry that they won't look serious to the powers that be, or, if the office is too happy, people will stop working their tails off. Whatever the reason, too many leaders don’t celebrate enough. To be clear here, we do not mean celebrating by conducting one of those boring company-orchestrated events that everyone hates, in which the whole team is marched out to a local restaurant for an evening of forced merriment when they’d rather be at home. We’re talking about sending a team to Disney World with their families, or giving each team member tickets to a show or movie, or handing each member of the team a new iPad. What a lost opportunity! Celebrating makes people feel like winners and creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Work is too much a part of life not to recognize moments of achievement. Grab as many of these as you can. Make a big deal out of them. That’s part of the leader’s job – that’s the fun part!
Your Leadership Journey
- If you are new to leadership, think about how you can be the kind of employee who is a doer – someone who makes life easier for their boss
- If you are a team leader, consider whether you have an effective evaluation system in place
- If you are a senior/veteran leader, consider whether the Six Sins of Leadership have been taking hold in teams throughout your organization