Bad Leadership (Part 2)

The details of Part 1? Not so important. It's the result of the details that matter. I've seen it time and time again, played out in the lives of people I know, as well as those I don't. The tell-tale result of bad leadership is ALWAYS the same. Manhandled situations, loss of team morale, and lots of steam-rolled people left (flattened) in the wake of their rabid ideals.

The following is one of my all-time favorite excerpts from a book regarding leadership and team morale. To me, it's the determining factor of what sets a good leader apart from a bad leader...I've had both in my life, and I know the difference:

Leaders in some organizations don't recognize the importance of creating a climate conducive to building potential leaders. They don't understand how it works. Advertising executive William Bernbach, who understands the difference it makes, once stated, "I'm always amused when other agencies try to hire my people away. They'd have to 'hire' the whole environment. For a flower to blossom, you need the right soil as well as the right seed."  Until the leaders in an organization realize this, they will not succeed, regardless of the talented individuals they bring into the firm. The right atmosphere allows potential leaders to bloom and grow. That is why the atmosphere needs to be valued and developed first. Even when a leader from an organization with a poor climate steals away a potential leader who is beginning to bloom from the rich "greenhouse" environment of a healthy organization, the potential leader will not continue to grow and bloom. Unless, of course, the leader has already converted the environment of his or her own organization from "arctic" to "tropical."

To see the relationship between environment and growth, look at nature. An observation was made by a man who dives for exotic fish for aquariums. According to him, one of the most popular aquarium fish is the shark. The reason for this is that sharks adapt to their environment. If you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium in which it lives. Sharks can be six inches long and fully mature. But turn them loose in the ocean and they grow to their normal size.

The same is true of potential leaders. Some are put into an organization when they are still small, and the confining [Nazi-like, with lack of respect & trust] environment ensures that they stay small and underdeveloped. Only leaders can control the environment of their organization. They can be the change agents who create a climate conducive to growth.

...Leaders set the tone...A leader cannot demand of others what he does not demand of himself.

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An excerpt from "Developing the Leaders Around You" by John Maxwell [pgs. 19-20]