Let’s be real. I hear this one a lot. Often at the beginning of my group leadership development programs. People, usually the older people or those higher up the organization (but don’t tell them I shared that), say that their style of leadership works ‘just fine’ for them.
What they are really saying is either they don’t want to change how they lead, or they fear being exposed as leader so they don’t want to participate in the program – because they’ve already ‘developed their style’. But strong leaders always want the opportunity to learn more about leadership, and to have their view of leadership challenged with the goal of becoming an even better leader.
The difficult message for those who believe their leadership style works ‘for them’, is that with all due respect they are the least important person to evaluate the effectiveness of their leadership ability. The true, or at least most important, people to evaluate someone’s leadership ability are their peers, the members of their team and the superiors. What do those people think about that person’s leadership style or leadership ability? Are they as effective as they could be? Can it be improved? The answer is almost always, “yes.”
Why is this mindset, that they don’t need to improve their leadership ability (or in their words, change their ‘style’), so destructive?
Here are 5 reasons:
- A person’s leadership ability determines their level of effectiveness. The ultimate measure of leadership is influence. An effective leader has tremendous influence on those around them. Ineffective leaders don’t. We can’t lead more people than we can effectively influence. So if that number is small, so is our effectiveness as a leader. Only as we increase our leadership ability do we effectively expand our influence and become more effective as a leader.
- They limit the performance of the people on their team. Following an ineffective leader is difficult and tiring for a team. (Read more about that here.) A recent study by the Gallup organization found that the performance of teams with ineffective leaders were 48% lower than those with competent leaders. When we’re not the leader we could be, we’re also holding back the members of our team.
- They limit the growth of the people on their team. If a leaders not growing, they can’t be role models of personal growth for their team. Therefore, they create a culture of stagnation. Why would anyone want to grow on a team that’s going nowhere? In fact, leaders that don’t want to grow often intentionally stifle growth on the team because it might expose their lack of leadership.
- They are really saying ‘they’re as good as they’re going to get’ as a leader. Leaders who aren’t growing naturally become defensive and protective of their territory (along with their beliefs), and this stifles all kinds of positive behavior around them such as creativity, innovation, risk-taking, etc. These people often think they’ve ‘peaked’ and are simply trying to keep doing what they’ve always done, and no longer change anything until…they retire. More times than not, they get ‘found out’ are removed before they get the chance to retire.
- Their thinking also stifles their growth in all areas of their life. People who don’t want to grow as leaders, rarely want to grow in any other area of their life. It’s not a time (or capability) thing as much as an attitude thing. They simply don’t think they should have to grow or change any more. They’re happy with everything just the way it is. Unfortunately, they can’t keep everything else around them from changing without them.
So stay open to new ideas, additional information, and personal growth. Especially, stay open to improving your leadership ability. Because as John Maxwell says, “Everything rises and falls on Leadership.”
Question: Do you have an intentional plan for personally growing as a leader? Have you allocated time and resources to invest in that plan?
