Most leaders are able to lead people to a certain extent, but only the best leaders are able to inspire and motivate their teammates to push beyond boundaries. This is because the best leaders have learned how to overcome or eliminate anything that may hinder them from being effective leaders. When left unchecked, leadership enemies can sabotage your success and may even lead to your downfall.
Do you know your enemies? Here are the five leadership enemies you must be aware of.
1. Ego
Ego is one of the worst enemies of a leader and yet one of the most silent. It can do more damage to a leader and his team than any other enemy because it goes right to the core of who we are as human beings. An overinflated ego can cause a leader to make decisions that are not in the best interest of their team or company, simply because they feel that they are above reproach.
One of the most common effects of ego is focusing more on oneself than the team. This can show up in many different ways, from taking too much credit for a team’s success to not giving enough credit to others to feeling threatened when someone else gets attention. When leaders are focused on themselves instead of the team, you have a recipe for disaster—people begin to feel like their work isn’t valued or appreciated, they don’t trust you or each other, and they may even start to see you as manipulating them.
Another symptom of ego is having a hard time admitting when you’re wrong. It’s a common human flaw, of course, but it’s especially dangerous for leaders. When you can’t accept that you made a mistake, it means you’re not learning from your mistakes and thus you’ll keep making them over and over again. If you’re too busy trying to prove that you were right, then you’re not actually doing the work of fixing things—you’re just trying to come out on top.
2. Compromising on Values
Leadership is about standing for something in particular and being the kind of person others respect, trust, and follow willingly. If leaders compromise their values and beliefs, they destroy their own integrity – the engine for authority and power; once it’s gone, a leader can’t do much more than bark orders at subordinates or threaten them with repercussions if they don’t comply.
The workplace is full of compromises and difficult decisions. That’s just part of the job. It’s rare that a leader can achieve everything they want without making some concessions along the way. But there is a line between a compromise and a capitulation, between tough choices and selling out. The challenge for leaders is knowing where that line is and not crossing it.
We can’t always control the situations we’re in, but we can always control how we react. When you’re put against the wall, you must remember that your integrity is inseparable from your character. A leader who compromises his core values for the sake of a position or money will ultimately lose both because he has no backbone and thus no leadership skills—and people will sense this immediately.
3. Complacency
Complacency is defined as contentment with how things are and satisfaction with your current situation. A complacent person is one who is already satisfied and will not push themselves to reach new heights and will not make others reach new heights either. They become content and stagnant in their progression forward in their mission.
Sometimes leaders choose to focus solely on their purpose, ignoring the completely quality of their work. While this gives the highest value in the short term, it becomes a disease in the long term. When the quality of work lowers, the Broken Window effect starts to appear, and leaders can become complacent with the current situation.
The enemy of innovation is success.
When you fall into a comfortable routine, it can be challenging to stay motivated, especially when it comes to personal growth. Complacency can lead to an attitude of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” which is the worst thing for any leader. While your routine may have gotten you where you are today, that doesn’t mean it’s enough to keep your moving forward. If you’re not growing and learning new things, then you’re falling behind.
4. Lack of Empathy
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. It’s an awareness of both what people say and how they say it and how your words and actions will impact them. When leaders lack empathy, they can’t form strong relationships with the people who rely on them. In addition, they might be unaware of or unconcerned about their shortcomings as leaders, which can be caused by arrogance or simply ignorance of what makes a great leader.
One very real result of this kind of leadership is that these leaders tend to lose the respect of their staff members. They might be seen as uncaring, selfish, or harsh as they cannot change the lens through which they view the world. This behavior leads to complicated situations where the leader blames the employees for poor performance, cannot see past mistakes, and lacks the trust needed to form healthy relationships.
When a leader demonstrates empathy, employees are more likely to feel comfortable approaching her with concerns or questions. An empathetic leader will also be better able to communicate effectively with his team members because he’ll be able to adjust his tone and choice of words according to how he thinks the other person will respond best. This can increase morale by making everyone feel that they’re being treated fairly, making them more likely to be dedicated and committed to their work.
5. Not Challenging the Status Quo
Challenging the status quo is a tough job. It’s not easy to stand out and lead your team to success when everyone else seems happy with the way things are going. In fact, challenging the status quo can be downright dangerous. That’s because any time you challenge something, there’s a chance that you’ll fail. And that means that you might lose everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
But if you don’t take risks, your team won’t grow, learn, or evolve. It’s worth the risk, and I dare to say it’s your responsibility as a leader. You must push boundaries and be innovative and disruptive to achieve the best results for your company, team, and customers. You owe that to whoever believed in you to take the lead and you owe that to your team.
Challenging the status quo means:
- doing things differently than how they have always been done before.
- doing what you feel is right despite what everyone else says or thinks about it.
- saying no when everyone else says yes.
- thinking outside of the box instead of staying inside of it.
- making mistakes that no one else makes because most people are too afraid to do anything different.
The Bottom Line
Now, take a deep breath, and see if you can recognize any of these enemies in yourself. Then, prepare for tomorrow wisely, and fight them so that you can hopefully lead the team to success.