When a Leadership Strength Becomes a Weakness
Often a leadership problem is just an overplayed strength.
To show you what I mean, let’s put another leader in the spotlight.
Jim was the CEO of a rapidly growing non-profit organization, which had nearly doubled in size in the first three years of his leadership.
He was making such a difference in the world, he even received an invitation to join a White House task force focused on the vulnerable population his organization served.
Jim was also a visionary, inspiring figure. As a result, he drew passionate and talented people who were motivated by his vision.
However, after the first three years, Jim noticed a dramatic slowdown.
His people would get excited about starting whatever project he dreamed up, but they seemed to have difficulty translating their enthusiasm into things like… actually finishing.
He would also get regular pushback from a team member who would constantly poke holes in his ideas.
Before long, projects became gridlocked. Jim’s promises to donors and the people the organization served were no longer coming true. A few key donors threatened to pull their funding if the organization didn’t deliver as he’d promised.
What was happening here?
Jim was a great guy. He was a truly caring and compassionate person who wanted to make a big difference in the world.
He was genuinely optimistic about the future and believed it was important to inspire people with his optimism.
The problem is, Jim had gone from being an optimistic person to being an idealist.
At some point, he had crossed an invisible line.
He ended up living in a bubble, where he never seemed to understand the practical limitations of his ideas.
He put a positive spin on everything, even genuine obstacles. He could turn the heat death of the Sun into “a pretty good thing, on balance.”
More importantly, he didn’t want to hear criticism or negative comments.
This meant he couldn’t see the warning signs indicating when a project was in trouble, even when they were written in red paint inside a red triangle with the words “WARNING, JIM!” in red neon lights... which the team would sometimes make for him.
In the eyes of his team Jim started out as an inspirational figure, but gradually they saw his vision as unrealistic, even pure fantasy… which crushed his credibility and his people lost trust in him.
What Jim desperately needed was a dose of realism.
He was often sending his team into a minefield, which he just assumed was a dancefloor… and he couldn’t understand why they weren’t dancing.
In a scenario like this, three things come to mind...
(1) Recognizing it as a minefield helps.
(2) Blind optimism doesn’t tend to work well in a minefield. A strategy of avoiding landmines works better?
(3) When a team member says, “Hey, I think there’s a landmine up ahead!”… maybe don’t take it as a negative comment trying to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm (for being in a minefield), but see it as useful feedback, in the sense that not being blown up is generally useful.
How does this metaphor relate to… well, anything?
Jim’s team were in the trenches. They had to live in the real world of trying to implement his vision. This meant they had a better line of sight on the problems than he did.
Bottom line is, he needed to listen to them more.
I urged Jim to actively seek out dissenting opinions, invite criticism and encourage team members to express themselves freely... even let them participate in setting the vision.
This allowed them to reconnect to the organization’s purpose and to feel inspired once again. The fire in their belly returned and they easily exceeded the more realistic goals they had all helped to set.
The problem for leaders is, the line between a good trait (such as optimism) and a potentially damaging version of that trait (such as idealism) is often blurry.
Most teams won’t bother making neon signs for you, to tell you when you’ve crossed that line.
Fortunately (for you) I’ve put together a quick quiz which helps you identify 14 important leadership traits, and enables you to discover where you might be “crossing the line” in any of them. It’ll only take you 5 minutes but I think you’ll find it’s a real eye-opener.
