"Behaviors that Cause a Leader's Downfall"

“AVOIDING BEHAVIORS THAT CAUSE A LEADER’S DOWNFALL”

The recent tragic firing of the late Penn State coach, Joe Paterno, confirms the harsh reality that highly effective, gifted and even legendary leaders are not above derailing themselves. Indeed, the average tenure of CEO’s of major corporations is becoming increasingly short. Almost every day, news articles include stories about leaders, who have fallen from being “the most admired” to those numbered as among the “least trusted.” Such leadership debacles can occur as the result of circumstances beyond a leader’s control but they more frequently happen as a result of inward leadership deficiencies.

In their book, Why CEOs Fail: The 11 Behaviors That Can Derail Your Climb To the Top – and How To Manage Them, leadership authors, educators and consultants to senior executives of many global corporations, David L. Dotlich and Peter C. Cairo, identify eleven detrimental behavior patterns which can sabotage the careers of even the most promising leaders. Their insights are based upon their vast research and experience as coaches and partners with their firm, CDR International. They also rely on the findings and insights of acknowledged mentors, Robert Hogan, Ram Charan and Daniel Goleman.

The co-authors define leadership as “the capacity to build and maintain a high-performing team and should be evaluated in terms of the performance of the team” (p. xiv). Along with Jim Kouzes and Barry Pozner’s, Leadership Challenge, they argue that competent leaders share four characteristics:

• They have integrity – they keep their word, they don’t play favorites, they tell the truth.
• They are decisive – they make sound, defensible decisions in a timely fashion.
• They are competent – they are obviously good at some aspects of the business.
• They are visionary – they can explain why the team’s activity is important and how that activity contributes to the well-being of the team.

As with Jim Collins and his book, Good to Great, the authors agree that highly effective leaders are also quite humble and persistent. Using Collin’s concept, these “level 5” leaders are “servant leaders.”

According to the authors, two thirds of those currently in leadership positions in the Western world will fail – they will be fired, demoted or “kicked upstairs.” The key reason is because of their inability to build or maintain a team. This shortcoming stems from certain dysfunctional dispositions and interpersonal tendencies within the leader. These are generally undetected within job interviews and assessment center exercises. They tend to become apparent when such leaders are under pressure or let down their guard. It is critical therefore, that senior leaders grow in their self-awareness because according to the authors, most leaders succeed or fail based upon how well they work with others and how well they understand themselves (p. xxi).

The eleven consistent potentially destructive C.E.O. behavior patterns identified by the authors are:

• Arrogance: You are right and everyone else is wrong.
• Melodrama: You always grab the center of attention.
• Volatility: Your mood swings drive business swings.
• Excessive Caution: The next decision you make may be your first.
• Habitual Distrust: You focus on the negatives.
• Aloofness: You disengage and disconnect.
• Mischievousness: Rules are made to be broken.
• Eccentricity: It is fun to be different just for the sake of it.
• Passive Resistance: Your silence is interpreted as agreement.
• Perfectionism: Get the little things right even if the big things go wrong.
• Eagerness to Please: Winning the popularity contest matters most.

In each chapter, the authors enunciate the signs and symptoms of each particular negative behavior pattern and suggest practical strategies for overcoming them.

A sample illustration of their overall discussion of each behavior “derailer” might be drawn from their treatment of “Excessive Caution: The Next Decision You Make May Be Your First.” Here, they begin by observing that overly cautious C.E.O.’s tend to fail because they typically over-analyze. They become hesitant and paralyzed by indecision simply because of the fact that within this complex world there is just too much data to analyze. In certain situations, effective leaders have to possess the courage to act although they might not possess all of the data they would prefer. In fact, time and energy devoted to over-analyzing and agonizing over details and options generally provide a competitive advantage to rivals. Indeed such prolonged hesitation and indecision is in reality a decision not to act.

As an example, the authors compare the overly cautious and analytical leadership style of President Jimmy Carter with that of Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s style was to make decisions based upon a prior set of a clear core set of beliefs and principles. He was committed to smaller government, stronger defense and lower taxes. Operating out of the context of these firm policy priorities, Reagan was able to make faster, bolder decisions in contrast to the more cautious, analytical prone Carter. It is one thing, they argue, to being risk-adverse and prudent to adopting an ongoing leadership style paralyzed by being almost compulsively risk adverse. Certainly, they admit, certain circumstances require being cautious. They write, however, “In our experience, leaders fail when they are routinely and philosophically cautious rather than being situational prudent” (p. 43).

The authors next identify the signs and symptoms of an excessively cautious leadership style. These include:

1) Unwillingness to fire anyone because of the unpleasant consequences such a risky decision might entail;

2) Churn instead of movement: putting off the need to confront hard facts which require making difficult decisions by focusing on forming committees, restructuring departments, setting timetables.

3) Absence of strong opinions or engagement in debate: the weakness of adopting such a “neutral” or conflict adverse position results in the failure to enunciate the type of clear direction required for moving an organization forward

4) Failing to act in a timely and decisive fashion: which adds up to missing critical opportunities and an accumulation of unresolved problems that eventually become too late to recover or resolve.

The authors suggest the following strategies for overcoming this potentially destructive leadership trait:

• Prioritize:  this includes identifying the one or two key matters and circling them including the reminder that making the wrong decision is probably better than making no decision at all.
• Do something different:  The authors observation is that overly cautious leader tend to be uncomfortable with the unfamiliar.  When a person realizes that nothing horrible happens when you do something new you are less likely to be caught in a cautious mode.
• Focus on past successes:  to counteract   the paralyzing fear of failure.
• Confront your worse fears:  identify worse case scenarios. Doing this lessens their power.

Each chapter on the eleven behavior derailers follows a similar format. The common theme is that these clear and consistent patterns of failures, which reside deep inside the leader, must be revealed and addressed. The authors readily admit this can be painful and challenging because a CEO needs someone on his or her team to have the courage to speak the truth to power. To make this possible, a CEO must be willing to become vulnerable.

A first step is for the CEO to invite his or her direct reports to provide brutally honest feedback as to how the CEO can be a better leader. Suggested questions include: “What do I do that drives your nuts?” “When I am under stress what do you think I do that is counterproductive?” Giving permission to direct reports to offer such candid evaluations cultivates a culture of confidence and trust. It also initiates a ripple effect throughout the company and ultimately builds morale and performance. A second step is for the CEO to find a confident, coach or mentor whom the he or she trusts. “This choice, the authors write, “is not to be taken lightly for a confidant to be effective in helping you manage your derailers; you are going to have to reveal some of your vulnerabilities” (p. 145).

The authors summarize their book by stressing that within the competing, complex and stressful demands of today’ leadership s environment, CEOs must move beyond the assumption that to be effective leaders have to be perfect and flawless. “To deal effectively with stress,” they argue, “the first step is to accept that you – all leaders – are fallible. Although many corporations do not acknowledge it, their entire leadership ranks are made up of flawed human beings. What needs to be more openly acknowledged is that flawed human beings can still be great leaders” (p. 150).

Reference: David L. Dotlich and Peter C Cairo, Why CEOs Fail: The 11 Behaviors That Can Derail Your Climb to the Top – and How to Manage Them. Jossey-Bass. 2003.