Six root causes of managerial incompetence and derailment

Chapter 16

The Dark Side of Leadership

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Chapter Outline

Introduction

Destructive leadership

Managerial incompetence

Managerial derailment

The ten root causes of managerial incompetence and derailment

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The Dark Side of Leadership

"If you put on a blindfold and threw a dart at a map of the world, then there is a 70 percent chance that whatever country the dart lands on is run by some form of dictatorship”

R T Hogan, Hogan Assessment Systems

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Introduction

There is a high level of agreement among scientists and practitioners on what constitutes bad leadership

Destructive leadership

Associated with individuals who are effective at engaging followers, building teams, and getting results through others, but who obtain results that are morally or ethically challenged or that undermine success

Managerial incompetence

Inability to engage followers, build teams, or get results through others

Managerial derailment

Describes the reasons why people in positions of authority have difficulty engaging followers, building teams, or getting results through others

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Destructive Leadership

Occurs in many settings and at all organizational levels

Occurs when people in positions of authority use their team-building skills to achieve greedy, selfish, or immoral results

May be in the eye of the beholder

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Managerial Incompetence

Incompetent managers have difficulties building loyal followings or getting anything done

Base rate of managerial incompetence may be 50 to 75 percent

Organizations may not need every person in a position of authority to be a competent manager

Organizations with higher percentages of competent managers occupying critical positions are more successful than those with fewer competent managers who are not well placed

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Managerial Derailment, 1

Research has identified five derailment patterns

Failure to meet business objectives

Inability to build and lead a team

Inability to build relationships with co-workers

Inability to adapt to new bosses, businesses, cultures, or structures

Inadequate preparation for promotion

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Managerial Derailment, 2

Presence of only one behavioral pattern is not enough for derailment except for a failure to meet business objectives

The five reasons for failure are universal

Awareness of why people fail in leadership positions is not enough to prevent failure

Knowing the root causes of managerial incompetence and what to do to minimize their impact improves the odds of being perceived as a competent manager

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Figure 16.1: Why Leaders Fail

Jump to Figure 16.1: Why Leaders Fail, Appendix

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The Ten Root Causes of Managerial Incompetence and Derailment

Situational factors

Follower factors

Lack of organizational fit

Lack of situational awareness

Lack of self-awareness

Lack of intelligence and subject matter expertise

Poor followership

Dark-side personality traits

Leadership motivation

Myths that perpetuate managerial incompetence

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Situational and Follower Factors, 1

Can interfere with a person’s ability to be seen as a competent manager

Managers should control their reactions to overwhelming situational and follower factors

Incompetent managers facing hopeless situations:

Tend to keep doing what they have always done but expect to achieve different results

Try to leverage their strengths rather than change, which erodes their ability to build teams and get results

Situational factors can mask managerial incompetence

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Situational and Follower Factors, 2

Episodic versus chronic incompetence

Episodic managerial incompetence: Occurs when extremely tough situational or follower events temporarily interfere with a person’s ability to build teams and get results

Experienced by all competent managers occasionally

Frequency and duration of occurrences should be limited

Chronic managerial incompetence: Occurs when taxing situational or follower events permanently disrupt a person’s ability to build teams or get results

Many people in positions of authority seem to exemplify chronic managerial incompetence

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Lack of Organizational Fit

Organizational fit: Degree of agreement between personal and organizational values and beliefs

People who do not fit with an organization’s culture may wield diminishing levels of influence, which interferes with their ability to engage followers, build teams, and get results

The best thing to avoid being seen as organizational culture misfits is to minimize the risk of it happening at all

Those who do not fit run the risk of being seen as incompetent

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Lack of Situational and Self-Awareness

Situational awareness: Leaders’ ability to identify the situational and follower factors affecting their teams and remain vigilant for changes

Self-awareness: Leaders’ ability to be aware of personal strengths and shortcomings and to find ways to either manage or staff around their personal knowledge and skill gaps

Causes

Managers suffering from a highly active reality distortion field

Managers failing to heed direct report feedback

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Lack of Intelligence and Subject Matter Expertise

Managers’ intelligence is directly related to their ability to make decisions and build cohesive teams and get results

Shortfall in critical knowledge and a lack of team-building know-how increase the odds of managerial competence

Subject matter expertise: Relevant knowledge or experience that can be leveraged to solve problems

Team-building know-how: Degree to which a leader knows the steps and processes needed to build high-performing teams

Can be compensated for by technology and staffing to identify and prioritize problems and develop solutions that help teams succeed

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Poor Followership

People in positions of authority who are criticizers, brown-nosers, and slackers are seen as incompetent managers

Brown-nosers do whatever their superiors tell them to do and are unable to make independent decisions

Slackers are so disconnected from the workplace that they are unlikely to build teams or get results

Followership affects how one leads and determines whether one is seen as a competent or incompetent manager

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Dark-Side Personality Traits

Irritating, counterproductive behavioral tendencies that interfere with a leader’s ability to build cohesive teams and cause followers to exert less effort toward goal accomplishment

Decrease a leader’s ability to get results through others

Usually appear during crises or periods of high stress

Have a bigger influence on the performance of leaders than followers

Apparent only when leaders do not attend to their public image

Resemble social skills and are hard to detect in interviews

Can occur at any leadership level

Are the leading cause of managerial incompetence

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Table 16.2: Dark-Side Personality Traits, 1

Traits Characteristics

Excitable Leaders with these tendencies have difficulties building teams because of their dramatic mood swings, emotional outbursts, and inability to persist on projects

Skeptical Leaders with this dark-side trait have an unhealthy mistrust of others, are constantly questioning the motives and challenging the integrity of their followers, and are vigilant for signs of disloyalty

Cautious Because these leaders are so fearful of making “dumb” mistakes, they alienate their staffs by not making decisions or taking action on issues

Reserved During times of stress these leaders become extremely withdrawn and are uncommunicative, difficult to find, and unconcerned about the welfare of their staffs

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Table 16.2: Dark-Side Personality Traits, 2

Traits Characteristics

Leisurely These passive-aggressive leaders will exert effort only in the pursuit of their own agendas and will procrastinate on or not follow through with requests that are not in line with their agendas

Bold Because of their narcissistic tendencies, these leaders often get quite a bit done. But their feelings of entitlement, inability to share credit for success, tendency to blame their mistakes on others, and inability to learn from experience often result in trails of bruised followers

Mischievous These leaders tend to be quite charming but take pleasure in seeing if they can get away with breaking commitments, rules, policies, and laws. When caught, they also believe they can talk their way out of any problem

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Table 16.2: Dark-Side Personality Traits, 3

Traits Characteristics

Colorful Leaders with this tendency believe they are “hot” and have an unhealthy need to be the center of attention. They are so preoccupied with being noticed that they are unable to share credit, maintain focus, or get much done

Imaginative Followers question the judgment of leaders with this tendency because these leaders think in eccentric ways, often change their minds, and make strange or odd decisions

Diligent Because of their perfectionist tendencies, these leaders frustrate and disempower their staffs through micromanagement, poor prioritization, and an inability to delegate

Dutiful These leaders deal with stress by showing ingratiating behavior to superiors. They lack spines, are unwilling to refuse unrealistic requests, won’t stand up for their staffs, and burn them out as a result

Source: Hogan Assessment Systems, The Hogan Development Survey (Tulsa, OK: 2002).

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Leadership Motivation

Those who lack the motivation to lead will likely make poor leaders

Team members who are smart, have plenty of expertise, and have no dark-side personality traits may be promoted into leadership roles

People being promoted may have questionable leadership skills and no desire to lead but may accept the promotion out of gratitude

Those wanting to become leaders need to be clear on their reasons for moving into positions of authority

People have a choice when it comes to getting promoted, but their choices will have a profound impact on the people they lead

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Successful versus Effective Leaders

Successful leaders: Network, stay on top of office politics, flatter superiors, do what their superiors want, demonstrate loyalty, do not make any waves, and self-promote

Effective leaders: Engage and develop followers, secure resources, clear obstacles, build high-performing teams, devise strategies to win, and drive results

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Myths That Perpetuate Managerial Incompetence

Leadership concepts that are adopted with the right intentions but contribute to managerial incompetence problems

Leader humility: Reduces the chances of being promoted

Authenticity: Followers want leaders who can adjust their behavior to situational and follower demands and keep their egos under control

Integrity: Managers often break commitments, and followers end up trusting the wrong people

Servant leadership: Most managers enjoy perks and often have their own interests in mind

If leaders take care of their followers, then followers will take care of customers and teams will achieve winning results

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Summary

There are many ways for people in positions of authority to fail, and most people are not particularly effective leaders

What constitutes good or destructive leadership may not be straightforward

People with managerial incompetence have difficulties engaging followers, building teams, or getting results through others

Managerial derailment pertains to the reasons why competent managers can be seen as ineffective, and knowing the reasons is not enough to prevent it from happening

Leaders and leaders-to-be can take steps to mitigate the impact of the root causes for managerial incompetence and derailment on their ability to build teams and get results

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appendix

Figure 16.1: Why Leaders Fail, Appendix

It has three circles that intersect each other in such a manner that some area of one circle is shared with another. The circle on the top is labeled leader. There are six points inside it that read lack of self-awareness, lack of situational awareness, lack of intelligence and expertise, leadership motivation, poor followership, and dark-side personality traits.

The circle on the bottom-left side is labeled followers. There are five points inside it that read disgruntled employees, criticizers, slackers, brown-nosers, and disruptive worker cliques.

The circle on the bottom-right side is labeled situation. There are eight points inside it that read competitive threats, globalization, government regulations, natural disasters, wars, mergers, leadership b s, and reorganizations. The area of intersection of the leader and the situation circles that is not part of the followers circle is labeled lack of fit.

Jump back to Figure 16.1: Why Leaders Fail

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