Manipulating rules to gain popularity

Every organisation has a set of policies, values and work ethics to eliminate the personal bias of leaders at varying management levels. Yet, the reality is that some leaders in today's highly functionalised business organisations try to manipulate rules to be popular among employees for their survival and cover up weaknesses.

Typically they are leaders who do not mirror the behaviour they want in their team members.

Bad functional leaders are letting people get away with indiscipline, laziness, lack of productivity and personal interests, to the detriment of the organisation.

Some leaders are unwilling to have the tough conversations with those in their functional groups. For certain, the conversations are not fun and they are thus often placed on the back-burner.

Anytime we confront someone with his or her deficiencies, we can be certain there will be negative emotions. So it's just sometimes easier to take the path of the coward and do nothing.

There has been some silly advocacy to focus only on workers' strengths while avoiding any discussion about their weaknesses.

Many leaders have moved towards that approach because it is less confrontational. But those in leadership positions are not there to be nice to bad employees but to good ones. They need to be leaders who are courageous, bold, forthright and honest.

Nice leader

The organisation may have a culture that encourages productive employees to cover non-productive employees. There is a 'niceness' in the systems of the organisation inhibiting productive employees from confronting the non-productive employees with their failure to carry the load.

As a result, the better workers will pick up the slack for the weaker workers. Sadly, the better workers usually get frustrated with the inequities over time, and this creates a culture of conflict.

The organisation eventually gets to keep the non-productive employees and the good ones will leave. One of your major responsibilities as a leader is to guide your employees in performing their jobs - identifying and dealing with issues that deter productivity.

Police yourself first

A compelling leader's behaviour has an impact on everyone around them and an effective leader is one who inspires his team by showing the way by his actions. Model the behaviour you want to see from others. There is nothing more powerful for employees than observing the 'big bosses' perform the actions or behaviour they expect from others.

Leadership is one of the most crucial aspects of a company. With the right leadership, your company could encourage and inspire employees to perform amazing feats.

Many good leaders could be great leaders if they only recognised their weaknesses. Often, the attributes you consider your strengths - when taken to extremes - become weaknesses.

Act as if you are part of the team, not always the head of it. Dig in and do actual work, too. People will appreciate that you are personally knowledgeable about the effort needed to get the work done.

They will trust your leadership because you have undergone their experience. Do, what you say. Ask senior managers to police themselves.

They must provide feedback when they fail to walk the talk. It is not up to the second level managers and other employees to point out inconsistencies. Senior managers must be accountable to each other for their own behaviour.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, "Become the change you wish to see in the world." And, it will happen.