Leadership enhancing the lessons of experience 8th by hughes curphy chap 15

Managerial incompetence concerns a person’s inability to build teams or get results through others.. Managerial derailment describes the common reasons why people in positions of autho

The Dark Side of

Leadership

15

"If you put on a blindfold and threw a

dart at a map of the world, then there

is a 70 chance% that whatever

country the dart lands on is run by

some form of dictatorship.”

RT Hogan,

Hogan Assessment Systems

Introduction

Destructive leadership is associated with

individuals who are effective at building teams and getting results through others, but who obtain

results that are morally or ethically challenged

Managerial incompetence concerns a person’s

inability to build teams or get results through

others

Managerial derailment describes the common

reasons why people in positions of authority have difficulties building teams or getting results

through others

Destructive Leadership

• Effective leaders make their organizations or

societies better places to work or live

• Destructive leadership occurs in many settings

and at all organizational levels

• Destructive leadership occurs when people in

positions of authority use their team-building

skills to achieve greedy, selfish, or immoral

results

• What is considered destructive or effective

leadership may be in the eye of the beholder

Managerial Incompetence

• Incompetent managers have difficulties building

loyal followings or getting anything done

• The base rate of managerial incompetence

may be 50-75% as illustrated by these facts

1 Most countries are run by some form of dictatorship.

2 Many leaders of democratic countries are perceived as

being unable to build teams or get results.

3 Surveys show that over 75% of employees feel that

their immediate boss is the most stressful part of their job.

4 Over 70% of M&A fail to yield projected improvements

in profitability and synergies

5 Research shows that 50-90% of all new businesses

fail within 5 years, which is mainly attributed to managerial incompetence

Managerial Incompetence (continued)

• Competent managers are good at building

teams and getting results through others

• Taskmasters are good at achieving results, but

they tend to treat followers so poorly that results are usually short-lived

• Cheerleaders are people in positions of

authority who are people-centered and make a

point of getting along with everyone

• Figureheads may not be complete failures at

building teams and getting results, but they

could be a lot better at both endeavors

Two Dimensions of Managerial Incompetence

Figure 15.1: The Two Dimensions of Managerial Incompetence

Managerial Derailment

Managerial derailment research identified five

derailment patterns:

1.Failure to meet business objectives

2.An inability to build and lead a team

3.An inability to build relationships with

co-workers

4.An inability to adapt to new bosses,

businesses, cultures, or structures

5.Inadequate preparation for promotion

• The presence of only one behavioral pattern is

usually not enough for derailment, except for

the failure to meet business objectives

• The five reasons for failure are universal

• Awareness of why people fail in leadership

positions is not enough to prevent the failure

• Managerial incompetence and derailment have underlying root causes, and knowing what they are and what to do to minimize their impact will improve the odds of being perceived as a

competent manager

Six Root Causes of Managerial Incompetence

and Derailment

Six Root Causes of Managerial

Table15.2: Bad Leadership, Managerial Incompetence, Managerial Derailment, and Root Causes

Six Root Causes of Managerial

1 Situational and follower factors

2 The lack of organizational fit

3 A lack of situational and self-awareness

4 A lack of intelligence, subject matter expertise,

and team-building know-how

5 Poor followership

6 Dark-side personality traits

Six Root Causes of Managerial

• Situational and follower factors that can interfere with a person’s ability to be seen as a competent manager include:

– New competitive threats, globalization, technology,

changing customer preferences, unreliable suppliers, new government regulations, unfavorable media

coverage, natural disasters, and wars.

– Mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, bankruptcies, new strategies, reorganizations, and incidents of workplace violence or environmental disasters.

– New bosses, peers, direct reports; disengaged or

disgruntled employees; disruptive worker cliques; and strikes or dysfunctional turnover.

– New jobs, responsibilities, or projects.

Six Root Causes of Managerial

• Managers can control their reactions to

overwhelming situational/follower factors

• Episodic versus chronic incompetence:

– Episodic managerial incompetence is when people in

positions of authority face extremely tough situational or follower events that temporarily interfere with their

ability to build teams and get results

– Chronic managerial incompetence is when taxing

situational or follower events permanently disrupt a

person’s ability to build teams or get results

• All competent managers experience occasional episodic managerial incompetence; the trick is to

Six Root Causes of Managerial

• Organizational fit is the degree of agreement

between personal and organizational values and beliefs

• Situational awareness refers to a leader’s ability

to identify factors affecting their teams and remain vigilant for changes People in authority positions need a high degree of situational awareness to be seen as competent

• Self-awareness refers to being aware of personal

strengths and shortcomings Leaders often find

ways to either manage or staff around their

personal knowledge and skill gaps

The Six Root Causes of Managerial

• Subject matter expertise is the relevant

knowledge or experience that can be leveraged

to solve problems

• Team-building know-how is the degree to

which a leader knows the steps and processes needed to build high-performing teams

• Poor followership is a lack of good

followership skills People in authority positions

who are criticizers, brown-nosers, and slackers are likely to be seen as incompetent managers

Six Root Causes of Managerial

Dark-side personality traits are irritating,

counterproductive behavioral tendencies

1.They interfere with a leader’s ability to build cohesive

teams, cause followers to exert less effort toward goal

accomplishment, and when exhibited regularly, decrease a leader’s ability to get results through others.

2.Everyone has at least one trait, which usually appears

during crises and when a leader is unconcerned about

appearances.

3.They have a bigger influence on the performance of

leaders than followers

4.Many resemble social skills and are hard to detect.

5.They may be the leading cause of managerial

incompetence.

Dark-Side Personality Traits

Summary

• There are many ways for people in positions of authority to fail, and unfortunately most people

are not particularly effective leaders

• Some root causes for managerial

incompetence and derailment include:

1 Overwhelming situational and follower factors

2 A lack of organizational fit

3 A lack of situational and self-awareness

4 A lack of intelligence, relevant subject-matter

expertise, and team-building know-how

5 Poor followership

6 Dark-side personality traits