HLRGazette Archives

Relive some of our best stories.

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

Inspiring Peak Performance

E-mail Print PDF
Three Uninvited Guests
Through a personal experience I was recently reminded of three things that are crippling to an organization of any size. Healthy, vibrant organizations generate positive energy and have a clear sense of vision, seeing a better future that beckons. Talented people are drawn to their cause like moths to a flame. Leaders are strong, competent and principled while at the same time humble enough to listen and learn. Individuals coalesce into super-teams and the level of accomplishment is ridiculous.

By contrast, toxic organizations are divided, running in place and waste extraordinary amounts of time, energy, and money on governance issues. With all of the information available about effective leadership, why do we still have underperforming organizations? Here are three debilitating causes of organizational failure.

1. Giving power politics a seat of honor at the dinner table.

All organizations are political to one extent or another because we are human. Politics can mean the art of governance. Merriam-Webster defines power politics as "politics based primarily on the use of power as a coercive force rather than on ethical precepts." There will always be people coveting position, prestige, authority, recognition-power-for personal reasons. Sometimes these reasons can be righteous. But, when these people cross the line and compromise organizational ethics and the highest principles to gain an end, start writing the epitaph if they are allowed to succeed. Once that evil genie is let out of the bottle it is almost impossible to stuff it back-the organization's very soul is blackened. Those who decry the use of power politics will find its use so distasteful they won't resort to it even if they are right. And the power politicians will solidify their position not knowing that in doing so they are signaling the organization's death knell.

2. Inviting lawyers over for an extended sleepover.

Some of my best friends are lawyers. And skilled attorneys are a wonderful, must-have asset in today's litigious society. But when an organization's leadership places more emphasis on the minutiae of legal documents than the broad, bedrock foundation of core principles the organization is not long for this world. You can be right and be very wrong. Looking for loopholes and hiding behind specific legal precepts to defend a political position will find an organization awash in details without a bold, wise stroke to be found. I appreciate lawyers who advise leaders on how they can do great things, not just telling what cannot be done. This requires a short visit, not an extended stay that will bring unintended consequences.

3. Opening the door for arrogance.

With a promotion comes a knock at the door. The visitor is cloaked in white and says, "Finally! They have recognized your greatness and given you the position you deserve. Now you and I can accomplish grand things together. May I come in?"It takes great restraint to slam the door on this fellow. The first guest to be summoned after gaining new responsibilities should be humility and the reaction should be, "Boy, have I got a lot to learn!" Ignorance means we don't know what we don't know. It is overcome by education and experience. Ignorance buoyed by arrogance is untenable. It cannot be overcome, but must be replaced. In the long run, the greatest leaders who have sustained, earth-shaking impact are principled, servant leaders. They run arrogance off the front porch like he was a two-bit elixir salesman.

Leaders don't set out to destroy their own organizations. They usually have the best of intentions and find themselves in an unimagined place by slowly giving in to compromise and natural, human tendencies. The antidote is to always choose ethics over power politics, principles over regulations, and humility over arrogance.