Week one, I attempted to set a common foundation by starting with things off with things we could agree on.

• Leadership development is a critical
• Leadership development is challenging
• Leadership development will differ per individual
• Leadership development requires TIME

It still remains true that, most leadership development sources and professional coaches focus on “rounding out the sharp edges,” by helping individuals identify their “strengths”,while, identifying our shortcomings, derailers, blind spots… aka: weakness.

This has made me ask several questions:

First, “Who do we follow?” (click here to read weeks #1’s post)

Secondly, “Why do we follow those particular individuals?” (click here to read weeks #2’s post)

Thirdly, “Why do we follow individuals who are “rough around the edges?” (click here to read weeks #3’s post)

During this finial week I decided to ask one question that is often overlooked, “What are the most common weak points of a  leadership?”

*In midstream of composing this post I decided to personally pull back the curtain and answer this question looking inward at myself and making general observations obtained by others. 

• The Art of Listening. Or more precisely, giving the appearance of listening. I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times. A business leader starts out as a genuinely good listener–attentive, curious, interested. Then, as success comes, along with massive demands on their time, and then the leader learns to fake it.  Sure, they still nod and say “uh huh” at the appropriate moments; they still wrinkle their brow and appear engrossed (they may even up the ante on shoulder holding and eye contact), but the reality is that they’re paying attention less and processing less of what they do hear. And of course, the result is that the leader becomes more and more isolated, less informed, and increasingly dependent on out-of-date and therefore irrelevant data. In turn, this leads to poor decisions, based on old assumptions.

Suggestions? If you think this might be you, there’s a simple fix. At the end of every substantive interaction, repeat back to the other party a summary of discussion, then ask this simple question: “Is there anything I’ve missed or misunderstood?”

• Multi-tasking. One of the strengths of most great leaders is their ability to get through a huge volume of work. Another is the ability to be “in the moment” and to focus relentlessly on the issue at hand. As the business grows and the demands on a leader’s time and resources are stretched further and further, guess which “strength” wins out? Multitasking– mostly because of the allure of decreasing the mountain of work ahead (an illusion, in fact, as you have no doubt experienced), begins to encroach more and more on the leader’s ability to focus on a singular issue. Those one-on-one meetings now seem like a good opportunity to also sign off on a bunch of “routine” memos. Darting outside to take a couple of phone calls during a meeting becomes routine. Speed scanning through documents that require “reading” can be done at almost any time. Except they can’t. Not only does the quality of your decision making suffer inordinately, worse, your credibility takes a beating as everyone in the organization realizes that you’re not really “present” anymore.

Try this as a step: Multitask only when you’re on your own–doing computer work or plowing through documents. Discipline yourself to engage fully when you’re with others, and you’ll see the quality of your decision making shoot up.

• Knee-jerk reactions / Quick decisions. Ahh, experience and judgment: the two skills that most got you where you are today. You’re renowned in the past for nailing it. You quickly assimilate data, appraise the situation, and call the play–and get it right, more often than not. Except that because your business has grown, there’s way more data now than you can possibly assimilate as quickly as you once did. So your snap decisions aren’t as dependable as they once were, but because you’re the big kahuna, no one is telling you. Take a wander down to the front line (or send someone else out to do it, like a secret shopper) and find out if that last decision you made (about shipping terms or inventory management or brand extension) really did work in practice, or if it’s just sitting there, a clunky, half-implemented, mostly resented piece of irrelevancy that everyone is trying his or her best to ignore. A close friend and life mentor once told me, “You may well find that while making knee-jerk decisions got you here, it won’t get you there.”

Baby steps: 1) Know yourself, evaluate and recognize the mental process of knee-jerk reaction. (2) Take a moment, breathe, and process your decision for at least 30 seconds.  (3) Engage fully with the person asking the question, chances are the person before you has prepared to ask you a question and may already have possible solutions.

• Manipulation. You’re probably proud of your honed communication skills; however, with the great power of communication comes the greater responsibility to not manipulate others with it: mentally or emotionally.  An individuals ability to craft a vision with precise words and to communicate it in a way that give others a clear visual pictures while motivating them to help people realize it is at the core of who they are.  Early on, you probably realized that you’re good at communicating and motivating others positively or negatively that you’ve probably short-circuit the process.  How?  Avoiding the lengthy process of collaboration and getting buy in and simply cut in with manipulation.  Yep, you’re probably manipulating others to do what you wanted, no questions asked. If you’ve been doing this long enough you’ve probably started fooling yourself about it.  As success has brings a hugely increased workload, there simply isn’t the time any more to truly motivate others, and you’ve slipped into using manipulation as a default in other words you’ve become a dictator, the supreme ruler vs a team player. The people around you have noticed, of course, and are increasingly doing the same thing themselves. The culture of the organization is diluting, and cynicism is replacing authenticity.

Here’s the litmus test: When people are manipulated into doing something, they do it–but only just. They’ll extend the bare minimum of effort in doing so. When they’re motivated, they’ll implement with intelligence and imagination. How often recently has your team taken an idea of yours and not only implemented it but together honed it and improved upon it? If the answer is “rarely,” chances are, you’ve slipped into default manipulation mode.

Action step: Take a moment to leave a comment or your thoughts about, “What are the most common weak points of your leadership?”  I’d be honored to hear and have you share thoughts.  How? Simply leave or submit a comment below and personally commit take one step forward from where you are at today.