What Scared Leaders Do to Courageous Employees | #Leadership
by Kate Nasser | 4 Comments »
Many assume that all leaders are courageous. Not true. I have consulted to many non-courageous even scared leaders. I have seen the impact they have especially on courageous employees. Here’s what they do to those they lead.
What Scared Leaders Do to Courageous Employees. Image by Christopher Bowley via Flickr Creative Commons License.
The Impact Scared Leaders Have on Employees
Scared leaders are afraid of potential conflict and afraid of making decisions. They hesitate to delay and avoid what they fear. What does this do to employees?
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Puts them in a holding pattern. Now what?
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Confuses them. This is hardly productive.
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Creates a vacuum. Since nature abhors a vacuum, power grabs may emerge.
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Makes them resentful. They wonder why you are the leader.
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Crushes their respect. They feel that scared leaders put them at risk. They lose trust in the leaders.
What Scared Leaders Do to Courageous Employees
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They often minimize and demean courageous employees in order to silence or remove them. By doing this, they get rid of what frightens them.
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Some scared leaders turn them into their therapists. Yet the courageous employees get tired of it. They begin to resent the scared leaders.
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They drive them to maverick behavior. Courageous employees won’t stay in a holding pattern indefinitely.
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They make courageous employees seem like the leaders. Other employees now go to them and the scared leaders resent it.
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Scared leaders give courageous employees reason to leave and find more dynamic employment elsewhere.
Leaders ask yourselves, Are you behaving as if you are scared? Scared of making mistakes? Scared of making the wrong decision? Afraid that employees won’t like you? Anxious about potential conflict? You can move beyond your fears. You can develop into a strong compassionate leader. I can coach you to meet your true potential!
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
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Are You Too Nice to Lead – Coaching Results
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©2017 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
My new book, Leading Morale, will be published in January 2018. If you would like advance information, please your name below and information you want in the comments section below.
I’m reminded of what happened on the Air Asia flight from Australia to Bali this week. When the plane precariously dropped, the flight attendants screamed and flipped out. Passengers, even the most courageous, were distressed that when they looked to the leaders in this case, there was only terror. Thank goodness that flight landed safely.
This is a subtle leadership pitfall… thanks for shedding light on it, Kate!
Alli
Oh my Ally. That’s quite an example. And in such a moment, leadership can mean all the difference in the world. Thank you for such a graphic real life example that shows how important the leadership within each of us truly is.
Best,
Kate
Great. Waiting for this Book, Yes! my sixth sense is enlighting the brain that this book will be full of KATE WISDOM.
Thank you Farrukh!