Leadership means making decisions and choices. It is taking responsibility for solving problems. The decisions are not always fun, easy, or expedient. You may get the blame and not the credit. You have to apply sound logic to compelling evidence and arrive at defensible decisions.
To not make a decision is a decision. Few problems solve themselves in the absence of action. When the cause, problem, and solution are clear, leaders don’t dodge decisions.
Here’s what a lack of leadership looks like: There are 2 employees. One is hard working, responsible, and ethical. The other is not. The first leadership mistake was allowing the cancer into the organization or not removing it. Now we will see the second major mistake.
Conflict is sure to arise when one employee does their job and treats people the right way and the other does not. Not wanting to lead and actually deal with the real issue, the leader redefines the problem to a false narrative (“they just don’t get along”) and picks the wrong solution. The leaders tells the good employee “You need to learn to work better together.”
But honesty can never work with dishonesty. Responsibility can never work with irresponsibility. Professionalism can never work with unprofessionalism. Integrity never works with a lack of integrity.
What happens next? Conflict will either continue or the good employee will be demoralized and quit. Now the organization gets to keep the loser (who they should never have hired or retained) and loses the winner. The message to the entire workforce is crystal clear.
What caused this? A lack of leadership. What could have solved this? Leadership.
Sources: Abrashoff, 2002; Blanchard, 2011; Collins, 2001; Drucker, 2001; Grant, 2017; Kotter, 2012; Lencioni, 2012; Maxwell, 1998; Welch, 2005.
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