Consider Sarah, a Vice President at a real estate investment firm whom I coached, who was a star performer — until her promotion to partner was blocked. Her high levels of efficiency and productivity in closing deals had made her successful, but came at the expense of morale and engagement among the junior staff. She also had not invested in building relationships with others who could advocate for her partnership. James, a career-transition client of mine, was a partner at a global professional services firm.
He delivered great insights and results for his clients, had deep domain expertise, and was considered to be brilliant by many. However, the extreme demands and unrealistic expectations he put on his team resulted in low engagement scores, turnover of valued staff and, ultimately, his dismissal. Great leaders are able to balance task-focus getting things done with people-focus inspiring, developing, and empowering others.
Leaders who balance task- and people-focus are equally driven and also strive for results, but they keep the broader organizational needs in mind. In research conducted by Robert Anderson and William Adams for their book Scaling Leadership , they identified that the number one differentiator of effective leaders is strong people skills, and that six out of ten of their biggest strengths related to people skills such as listening, developing others, and empowering their team members.
Overly task-focused leaders also tend to be more reactive, operating from a position of fear, and often displaying highly directive, controlling, or perfectionist behaviors that can alienate others and be disempowering to their teams. If you sense that you may be overly task-focused, here are some suggestions to re-set your priorities:. Get feedback. Ask key stakeholders how well they think you balance your task-focus versus your people-focus.
Identify high-value ways to focus on people. Incorporate the feedback you receive to identify some regular practices to implement, such as having periodic career development conversations with direct reports, eliminating distractions during these conversations so you can actually focus on the other person, or having coffee with a colleague to get to know each other beyond work.
Unfortunately, leadership can fail due to a leader physically or mentally falling apart, and this actually is tragic. Burnout, depression, addiction, or any number of physical ailments brought on by continual stress and insufficient stress management skills or a refusal to take care of oneself can be responsible for leadership failure. Leaders may operate in a rarefied atmosphere, but they need advisors, coaches, or others they trust to always tell them the truth, even if painful.
Leaders are as human as the rest of us, and just as imperfect. Many leadership failures can be prevented or shut down if a leader is committed to improvement and surrounds himself or herself with people who speak the truth and are willing to bring up uncomfortable truths when necessary. These trusted people may include a best friend, a spouse, a colleague, or an executive coach, and their value cannot be overstated. Back to blog.
Call today: All rights reserved. Past successes create pressure for leaders, so much so that they can become passive and stop taking risks because of a fear of failing. Prudent leadership never takes reckless chances that risk the destruction of what has been achieved, but they are not paralyzed by fear either. Leaders seek out the advice of their team, drawn on their own knowledge, and then take calculated risks to move the organization forward. The highest principle of leadership is integrity.
It is imperative to your leadership that you constantly subject your life and work to the highest scrutiny. While leadership is invigorating, it is also tiring. Leaders who fail to take care of their physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs are headed for disaster. Take time to clear your schedule and take care of yourself. It is absolutely vital to your leadership that you continue to grow and develop.
Leaders often fall into the trap of trying to please everyone and to befriend co-workers. This strategy is hardly effective and may backfire.
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