7 Signs Poor Leadership is Sinking The Business
One bad manager here or there in the company is never enough to really cause damage, because often the team and managers around them pick up the slack. But what happens when the company appears to be sliding into a period of prolonged under performance? Here are 7 signs there is a collective issue of poor leadership right across all senior managers and leaders in the business stemming all the way from the top:
1.) More than one layer of senior managers are incompetent and do not have a good enough understanding of the business.
It’s understandable that the CEO or equally senior staff should not get bogged down into the detail of the business in order to make clear headed bigger picture decisions. However when you have a few layers of managers and bosses who are all not willing to dig deep into the issues, because they feel they are too senior to be bogged down into the detail, there can be an incredible quick build up of poor results, or worse, inaction.
Imagine if each manager in the chain is communicating only 50% of the on the ground issues upwards, if you have 3 layers of these managers the top dog is only getting 12.5% of the real picture (50% X 50% X 50%). And that’s not even considering the possibility that the information the managers feed upwards could be incorrect!
2.) There is a strict hierarchical culture where C-suites only deal with their direct reports. Other levels of staff are kept at arm’s length.
The C-suite of companies that only talk to their direct reports and not the levels below that, will have a very narrow view of the business, and worse, they won’t know any different. If there are managers who are only passing on 50% of the story to the leaders then it’s important that the leaders ensure they get a broader range of opinions and vibes from other levels of staff. Underlying this is a culture that they don’t value or rate the opinions of staff they perceive to be “lower”, than them. As such there could be an even worse toxic culture of: cronyism, nepotism, discrimination, and at best heaps of unconscious bias.
3.) They don’t ask the right questions
Linked to not having a good understanding of the business, the leaders don’t ask the right questions to find out if there are problems, or they don’t keep asking till they get to the real cause of the issue. Issues are allowed to continue to fester and develop into something bigger. When operational staff raise the issues, they are not taken seriously or ignored.
4.) The leaders have zero operational or relevant experience
Try it, look up their LinkedIn profiles and see if they have either jumped around roles too quickly in senior positions to be able to make a difference. Also have a look at whether they have built a good foundation of operational knowledge in your sector or have they for example been a consultant and then immediately jumped into such a senior role so they won’t have ever built anything up themselves or got things working on an operational level, with people or systems. In an of itself one manager who is lacking in operational know how is fine, but when combined with other managers who also don’t have strong prior experience, we then have a team of leaders all slightly lacking and this starts to add up. Has your company over the length of a few year continued to slide down the pan in terms of under performance, with no real progress or change? This could be a core reason why.
5.) They reward poor performance
Due to a lack of real insight into the business, they may not know where the under performance lies let alone why or when it will arise. They may be easily fooled by other incompetent managers that are only good at managing their image upwards and actually reward their bad behaviour. Discretionary bonuses are paid out despite targets not being met. And due to a lack of questioning or challenge, they are blind to toxic managers. The knock on impact of this is that good managers actually leave when they see the unfairness of others being rewarded the same for poor performance.
6.) Leaders have no foresight of issues coming up
Are leaders preparing for worst case scenarios and coming up with a plan of action, or are they just coasting towards doom? Is it obvious that the worse is yet to come, yet nothing is being done to address the issues from the top? Poor leadership.
7.) They put out inconsistent messaging
An example of this is the UK government’s handling of the Coronavirus situation. Masks were deemed as not helpful, but are now required to be worn in shops. But not schools. This kind of conflicting logic confuses people and actually makes them not take guidance seriously.
Do bosses in your complain that there is a lack of process and policy, yet hold up plans to put policies and procedures in place? This could be a sign of incompetent leaders not knowing what to do.
8.) Inability to look inwards and identify how they can improve themselves as leaders. Let the blame game begin!
After a period of poor performance you would think questions would start to get asked. Unfortunately no, in a toxic company with poor leaders, the blame game starts. Again this does not address the heart of any issues and is only a way of protecting their own brands and image and not that of the collective. Have you got leaders that are only interested in PR and self branding, be wary!
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch
Even though you’ve identified that there is a systemic problem within the company, there is still much you can do to develop yourself in the company even if the leaders are poor .
However be aware that there are some things you cannot change, especially when there is a systemic and institutional problem of poor leadership. The longer term goal may be to move companies. Learn as much as you can on what NOT to do, but keep in mind there is so much more to learn in the wider world. Never limit yourself.
GOOD LUCK
WOTL
xx
