LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT – THREE REASONS WHY LEADERS FAILIt has been said that a leader without followers is out for a lonely walk. I couldn’t agree more. Leadership development is about learning how to lead effectively and productively in order to develop followers. Here are three reasons why I believe that some leaders fail.

  1. They Avoid Confrontation. Most of us do this naturally. We have been told from the time we were children not to get into fights. In fact, many of us were told to simply walk away if a fight breaks out in school. Many people think that confrontation is a bad thing. I disagree totally. If handled effectively, confrontation and conflict can be quite healthy for a person, a team, or even an organization.
  2. They Fail to Put Time Into Goals. Most people get their first leadership position because they did their job well. Does that mean they know how to teach others how to do the job just as well? Of course not. This means that leaders have goals and they need to work at them just as hard (or even harder in some cases) as they did the work that came before their promotion.
  3. They Have Poor People Skills. Let’s be clear on one thing – we are all in sales to some degree. Did you get your current position by walking in and saying, “Hi, I wanna job!”? Of course not. You had to sell yourself and the company had to sell themselves to you as well. Think of it this way; whenever you have a new policy to implement, you must sell it to your staff. This is especially difficult for you Director and Perfectionist personality types. You see, you are very task-based individuals and people skills don’t come naturally. This means you need to work at this like any other segment of your position.

If you, as the leader, can overcome these obstacles, you will find yourself to be more successful and your team will, ultimately, be more successful.
 
 


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