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The #1 Reason Leaders Get into Trouble with their Teams

A client of mine told me she hates the word ‘leadership’ she feels great leaders are born and I believe great leaders are made. My client hates the word leadership because it doesn’t ‘say’ anything about what is being done. Her argument is that most people who call themselves leaders are really managers and at least they are ‘managing’.
My rebuttal to her was that leadership means ‘leading’ and most managers spend too much time ‘managing’ and not enough time ‘leading’ others to manage.

There are many reasons that a leader gets into trouble with their team. The leader can be lousy at multi-tasking, project management, motivating the team, time management, giving great performance reviews, dealing with difficult situations just to name a few.

The number one reason leaders get into trouble with their teams which underlies all other leadership activities is that the leader ‘assumes’ he or she knows all that there is to know about a situation or a person.

I know, I know you have heard the make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me’ countless times and I can assure you that you still may be doing it more than you are willing to admit.

In the example of the client I mention above she ‘assumed’ her managers were lousy leaders because they weren’t born that way. That assumption was causing her to hold limited views about the capabilities of her managers/leaders and it was causing her to
continue to need to ‘control’ their actions.

As long as we hold on to our negative assumptions about people and their performance we limit their true potential and it forces us to continue to micro-manage while suffering increased stress and the ‘why do I have to do everything’ attitude.

When we shift our assumptions to positive ones we allow for space and room for the manager to be ‘made into a leader’. The executive conceded that yes leaders could be made but not overnight and not without some intense support in the form of recognition, coaching and tools to succeed.

Don’t let the number one reason leaders get in trouble afflict you- make positive assumptions, ask lots of questions to ensure you are clear before taking action and test your assumptions by asking them outright.

Do you have a story about shifting from small to big? Send it to me info@cherylcran.com

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