Written by xfahmix

Everyone is a leader in some way, from a husband who took the role as the leader of his family to leaders of society. Great leaders exhibit consistent traits while incompetent one share the same lack of aptitude. Therefore, it is very crucial for us to reflect on ourselves- identify our weaknesses and work on them, so that we are prepared to take the roles of being a leader in the future, thus, avoiding ourselves being a liability to an organization.

After reading few articles about signs of incompetent leaders and why leaders fail, I can safely say that a number of factors pointed in the articles demonstrate a reverse of great leader trait in a book written by Jim Collins entitled Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t. To summarize, Jim Collins use an analogy of a bus to represent an organization. The bus’ destination is the goal of the organization while the driver can be regarded as the leader. The first step is to get the right people into the bus and to place them in the right seat. Getting the right people into the bus is as crucial as getting the wrong people out of the bus for established organization. Finally, set the destination (goal) and work towards them.

Among the main essence of a successful of an organization is the people. Those who are equipped with appropriate skills and attitudes will drive the organization to another level while those who lack these skills will hinder the progress of an organization. Leaders have the responsibilities to make sure that the organization stay in line with their goal, delegate balanced works to the subordinates and preserve the credibility and integrity as a leader. In this post, we will explore three relevant signs of poor leaders which we should look out.

DRIFTED FROM GOAL

Leader who derailed from the goal simply loses the perspective of what is important for the organization. This can happen in leader who lack of clarity and understanding of the goal resulting in their inability to steer the organization in the right direction. They shift their attention to trivial things leaving behind things that really matter. This is illustrated by Jim Collins regarding company which carries out undisciplined acquisitions that defy from their main industry, bringing the company to a dire state.

POOR DELEGATION

One of the tasks of a leader is to delegate works to the subordinates. Delegation should be done in a balanced way so that we can mobilize the people efficiently without under utilizing others. Great leader have the ability to identify the skill sets of his subordinates and allocate the works accordingly. Poor delegation is a result from leader who is unaware of the capabilities of the subordinates and unable to allocate the right task to the right people- leading to substandard result. Poor performance of the people reflected poor leadership thus leader are accountable for the failure of their people to perform the task. In order for delegation of work to be streamlined, it is important for the leader to have good communication skills with the subordinates.

LACK OF INTEGRITY

This is perhaps the most important factor that determined a successful leader. Leader who lacks integrity does not externalize what they proclaimed. They come out with mixed and inconsistent messages to the people which will be perceived as poor leadership. Leading by example is the key to great leadership.