He Was a Leader Until … He Wasn’t
View CommentsDo the Mighty Ones Have to Crash and Burn?
The bigger they are, the harder they fall … what makes them that way?
We’ve all the rise and fall of “that guy.” He was intelligent, savvy, and a leader in anyone’s book. He also cared about things like integrity. People invested in him with their hearts, mind, time, and money. He was a great leader until … he wasn’t. At some point it quit being about the cause and became about him.
The rise and fall story isn’t always about a “he.” Many a mighty “she” has made the same fall.
What Happens When the Mighty Fall?
According to the Harvard Business Review, 2 out of 5 new CEOs fail in their first 18 months on the job. It appears that the major reason for the failure has nothing to do with competence, or knowledge, or experience, but rather with hubris and ego and a leadership style out of touch with modern times.
Why is this leadership crisis happening? One reason may be the gaps between how leaders see themselves and how others see them. –Why Do CEOs Fail and What Can We Do about it? Psychology Today
Jim Collins, author of the bestselling books, “Good to Great” and “Built to Last” is a knowledgeable compelling speaker who offers the learning from thousands of hours of research on the best companies and what separated them from the “almost best.”
If you’ve read Collins’ books, you know that leaders of great companies are humble, willing to do the hard work, and willing to make the unpopular, painful decisions to do whatever it takes to support the cause of the business.
Collins pointed to five stages of decline in a great business. The same five stages also could be named the state of decline in individual leadership career.
- Hubris born of success – the belief that the business or the leader can’t fail; the arrogance of acting as if all of our decisions are good.
- Undisciplined pursuit of more – too much growth, too much adventure, too much big risk.
- Denial of Risk and Peril – disregard for warning signs or reality checks.
- Grasping for Salvation — when things begin to crumble, rather than going back to discipline, the leader looks for a savior. He or she wants someone to put things back – to fix what went wrong.
- Irrelevance – the business or the leader bites the dust. No cares what happens to them.
Leaders are people who want to build something they cannot build alone.
The sheer ability to be mission critical to a bigger mission than oneself is at the core of leadership.
It’s good to celebrate success, to claim our rewards and leverage them. It’s even better to understand how much of our success is dependent on skills and influence of those around us. Choosing people who hold us to our best values is important. Doing that for ourselves is characteristic of leadership.
How do you know when a leader has lost sight of his or her best leadership?
Be irresistible.
Liz


