Leadership traits and organizational outcomes
The good, bad, and ugly
I'm going to do a slightly unusual post today by presenting something I've been thinking about. I do not have data, but I did create a great chart. I'm interested in what others think about today's post. Here we go.
My experience in higher education has taught me that the most important thing is to maintain a certain level of elite civility. Criticism should be limited, and directness is discouraged. I've watched several presidents, provosts, deans, and vice presidents come and go. These are our executives, or managers. Some were good, but the majority were less so. Figure 1 summarizes my observations. Let me explain, and I'm guessing this is well-known in the management world, but it's not the type of material I usually read. I apologize for being naïve.
My opinion is that there are two fundamental characteristics of leaders. Are they competent or not? Are they likable or not? The most harmful to the organization are individuals who are incompetent, passively so, and likeable. I will get to the explanation. I'll start with quadrant one.
Likeable and competent
This is a clear and best-case situation. People can work with this type of leader, and they are competent, which I interpret as the ability to move the organization forward with favorable results. Unfortunately, I haven't dealt with enough of these leaders.
Unlikeable and competent
The competence is excellent. There are positive results, but you must deal with someone in charge who is difficult to work with. Possibly a real jerk. The organization survives and may thrive, but these leaders tend to be short-lived. Being less than appropriately polite is frowned upon in higher education and possibly everywhere (this is a place where I could need some opinions), so these people do not last as long as they should. Maybe this is okay, but over time I've concluded I'd rather keep this person than try to find a likeable and capable leader, as I find this to be too similar to looking for a unicorn.
Unlikeable and incompetent
One may think that this is the worst-case scenario, given that both attributes are unfavorable. I don't think so, because these people don't last long. Yes, they produce some harm while present, but since they are unlikable, their incompetence is noticed and discussed more publicly. To be sure, this isn't ideal, but I don't think it is the worst case.
Likeable and incompetent
I consider this the worst-case scenario, and I divide it into two parts. The main point is that popular leaders are more difficult to dismiss than unlikeable leaders. This permits them to stay for much longer and wreak far more damage to the company. I see two types of incompetence here: active and passive.
Active incompetence is described as making judgments and taking actions that are detrimental to the organization. When a person is likeable, their explanation for why things went wrong, which is most often due to factors outside their control, is accepted. People may even feel bad for this person. Even so, if the person makes enough terrible mistakes, he or she may be removed.
Worse is a passively incompetent leader. This is defined by generally failing to take action when it is necessary. What makes this so bad is that if no action is taken, it may take considerably longer for anyone to recognize the detrimental consequences. No one gets upset by this type of leader, and because they are likeable, everyone is generally pleased with the individual. They are exceedingly difficult to remove and can persist for several years as the organization continues to decline. This is the absolute worst scenario to be in.
Comments
Please take a moment to comment. Did I get this right? What did I miss? Am I totally off the mark? How do your personal experiences compare to what I've described? Also, feel free to include a citation for how this was all known 100s of years ago by businesspeople.
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Disagreeing and using comments
I'd rather know the truth and understand the world than always be right. I'm not writing to upset or antagonize anyone on purpose, though I guess that could happen. I welcome dissent and disagreement in the comments. We all should be forced to articulate our viewpoints and change our minds when we need to, but we should also know that we can respectfully disagree and move on. So, if you think something said is wrong or misrepresented, then please share your viewpoint in the comments.