Tunnel vision. I see leaders so focused on something that they can’t see what’s going on outside of that tunnel. Real leadership requires that people listen to others and accept that others may think differently. Tunnel vision can be important in leading a charge, or in teaching a student a precise skill, or in learning a piece of music. But leadership is something different and much broader.
When leaders lose their temper over things, they’ve had it. This is the big one— especially if you give this image to people you work with. Not good. They will stay away, and you won’t have open communication because they are afraid of you.
I think that micromanaging is a problem with some people. They don’t let people thrive and succeed. I think that’s a problem, particularly with emerging leaders. I see great parallels with the developmental stages of nonprofit organizations. Micromanaging people is the same thing, and it’s fear-based. If leaders are lucky, they will come to a point where their own growth prohibits them from micromanaging others.
Authenticity and Transformational Leadership
The capacity to deal well with other persons when leading is deemed critical by senior sages. In contemporary parlance, they view effective leaders as possessing “emotional intelligence.” Such admired leaders are skillful in building relationships and in being friendly, compassionate, diplomatic, and inclusive of others. They also get people to work together, are open to advice, and treat everyone with respect. Admired leaders exhibit the kind of people skills that senior sages hope they themselves possess, and that they most value in other collaborators. It seems not just a matter of being nice to other people and avoiding participation in nasty politics that infect both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. According to senior sage leaders, effective leadership has to do with being a guardian of social justice: not treating one group of people different from another because of social status, economic level, gender, race, or age.
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