Bad leadership

Not everyone is born to lead.  Some people who hold leadership positions turn out to be incompetent (e.g., Austin Powers, Monty Python), rigid (e.g., Pres. Richard Nixon), corrupt (e.g., financier Bernie Madoff, Illinois Gov. Rod Bagojevic), or evil (Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler).

These, of course, are extremes.  If you work or volunteer for a non-profit organization, you may not see such extreme behavior among your staff leadership but you could encounter people who are just not good leaders.  How do recognize them (or yourself)?

1.   Poor leaders give poor direction to staff and volunteers.  They’re not good supervisors, do not support or inspire people and may lack vision for what the organization needs or its direction.   As a result, boundaries are not clear and people often stumble over each other trying to get things done.

2.   They often rule by intimidation.  Signs of this are when staff don’t speak up at meetings, have to ask permission to do virtually anything and won’t take risks in suggesting new ideas or ways to improve.  Being in control is more important to this kind of leader than getting ideas from others.

3.   When things don’t go well, they are quick to point out who failed.  Dividing people works, in the leader’s mind, to secure their own status.  Some volunteer leaders will also behave this way, blaming the staff when things aren’t going well, even if the volunteers are at fault.

4.   Change for bad leaders is something to resist and fear, not embrace.  Keeping the ship steady is a priority, risk taking is scary and, well, risky.

5.   Team building, professional development, strategic planning  - these are all bad words to the poor leader.   They are all measurable and, therefore, create a threat to this kind of leader who fears that he will be judged against these benchmarks.

6.   Usually organizations with poor leaders have high staff turnover and a difficult time getting people to serve on the board or committees.

When I started my consulting business more than 10 years ago, someone advised me of this cardinal rule:  never work for or with someone who will make you sick.  Poor leadership can make people sick – and it certainly won’t help them be more successful.   I would steer clear.

Of course, if you are reading this and see yourself in the six characteristics above, that’s a different problem. 

The legacy of Joe Pa

I was born and spent the first 12 years of my life in Philadelphia and visited often after we moved to the Chicago area.  So I’m not surprised that I followed Penn State football for years – even at a distance.  It always struck me how the school produced outstanding athletes and scholars year after year – and nobody ever had their own name on a uniform.

Penn State is front page news these days – first because of the allegations of sexual abuse by a former assistant coach and this week because of the death of Joe Paterno, who served the school as head coach for 40 years.  Much has been said and is being written about Paterno and the impact the sexual abuse scandal had on his last days and will have on his legacy.

The news carried photos of students and other admirers gathering around the Paterno statue in State College, PA.   How many people can visit statues of themselves during their own lifetimes?  Paterno surely did.  What will those who visit that statue in the future learn about the man and how will they feel about him?  Today many students – present and past – feel a tremendous loss, as well they should.

My own image of Paterno was of a man pacing the sidelines during Nittany Lions games.  I never saw him wear a headset, as most coaches do today.  He often spoke to players coming off the field and occasionally to the other coaches – his assistants.   What a remarkable statement of trust that he could allow everyone around him to perform during the game knowing he had provided all the coaching he could in the week or weeks leading up to a game.

It’s a great lesson about coaching and life.  You don’t have to call the plays on game day to be a leader.  And you don’t have to carry around a playbook to know if you’ve planted the right seeds for a winning formula.  Joe Pa knew that.  Maybe that can be his legacy – leadership.

What can Dr. Martin Luther King teach us about non-profit leadership?

The annual calendar in America contains dates to honor great leadership.  MLK Day is one such date and a great time to reflect on what it means to lead.  What is it about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that makes us see him as a leader?  And what do we learn from his style?

Many years ago a friend of mine wrote a book called “Say it straight or you’ll show it crooked.”  I don’t remember too much about the book, but I do remember that sentence.  Leading – whether in politics, sports, business, the arts, and non-profits – requires saying it like it is.  You can’t get people to go where you want them to be without being honest with them about where they are now.  No one ever doubted where Dr. King wanted to take this nation.

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the nation in response to the assault on Pearl Harbor he appealed to both the people’s minds and their hearts.  He said, “All we have to fear is fear itself.”   Leaders take advantage of all of the assets of those who they wish to lead – their minds, their hearts and their spirits.

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”  These words of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower teach us that you can’t lead simply by command.  People must share the values and intentions that you, as a leader embody and display.  Dr. King understood that he was the inspiration for others to do what they knew was the right thing.

Most of all, leadership is vision.  To avoid being stuck in the status quo, people need to know there is a better day to come.  A leader is that person who can take them there – or at least proclaims so.  That’s the power of Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech.  It’s why so many new and young voters were drawn to Barack Obama’s message of “hope and change.”  And it’s why some men succeed as quarterbacks in the National Football League and many more do not.

As a non-profit leader, how do you measure up?  Today – MLK Day – might be a good day to decide how to become a better leader.

Of football and non-profits I blog

This past weekend I devoted a lot of time to watching football.  It’s that time of year when teams face a one-and-done elimination which makes the games more exciting.  I confess to also watching some of the Republican presidential candidate debates but the fact that there will be more and elimination only happens when you run out of money and your numbers are single digits, makes it less exciting than playoff games in the NFL – at least for me.

Back to football.  Here in Denver it’s all about Tim Tebow.  Like him or hate him, we can’t seem to stop talking about him and watching him.  Sports radio hosts and their fans argue for hours about what it is about Tebow that keeps our attention.  The naysayers point to his flaws and the fanatics point to his character.

Truth is, one person doesn’t win or lose a football game by himself.  You win or lose in golf based solely on your own performance – but not in football.  It’s a team effort which, in most cases leads to a win.  Both on and off the field, football teams win when their talent is enhanced by the intangibles – leadership, desire, and a winning attitude.  Some of these are so important they can even overcome lack of talent. 

And in the end, I believe that what makes the biggest difference is coaching – helping players get the most out of themselves.  Football team owners know the importance of coaching.  That’s why when teams do poorly coaches get fired before players get traded.  They call it Black Monday in the world of professional football.

After spending more than 20 years in the non-profit world, I have come to believe that coaching is the key to success there, as well.   I know the mind-set that says non-profits are not like the business world because of the value-driven nature of work in the third sector.  But that doesn’t mean the processes that produce success in business, sports and entertainment can’t also work for non-profits.

Great non-profits have a coaching culture where employees and volunteers are supported and guided toward personal and professional success.

Where a coaching culture exists in a non-profit you can expect that: 

• ·         Staff and volunteers will feel valued and appreciated
• ·         Relationships between staff and volunteer leadership will be more effective
• ·         Expectations will be clearer and misunderstandings less frequent
• ·         A climate of personal responsibility will be evident
• ·         People will feel less stress
• ·         Staff and volunteers will stick around

 Frustration – whether on the field or in the office – comes not from lack of talent, but lack of or poor coaching.  Since everyone working in a non-profit is there for the cause, not the money, what a shame we don’t always give them what they need to succeed.