Leadership Diseases

Leadership is a super complex subject.

Good intent is not a gurantee. Good looks are definately not a gurantee. Good oration skills is also not a gurantee. Public image is surely not a guarantee.

It’s much more than that. In fact, it’s everything other than this.

Ken Blanchard in his book talks about ABCD of Trust. Here’s my take on how this ABCD correlates with Leadership Diseases.

Note: “Any similarity with fictitious events or characters is purely coincidental.”

A stands for Able.

Ability is fundamental. Intent without ability leads to following sickness:

• finding excuses,
• putting blame on others,
• blaming your own own team,

B stands for Believable

Believability comes for action. Not for social media. Not from PR. Not from speeches… But from action. And believability comes when people see honesty, integrity and honoring commitments rather than finding excuses to break them. When a leader suffers from lack of believability, following sickness appears:

• Investing on image building with gimmicks,
• Threatening opponents / other leaders,
• Compromising on integrity for short-term face saving.

C stands for Connected

Connection is about building human relations with others. And this is not selective. This is universal. This is not for people who agree with you but also with those who disagrees with you. When leader suffers from lack of connectedness, following sickness appears:

• Loss of Vision [Vision… not sight :)],
• Bunch of idiots surrounding you, and giving you the required ego massage that takes you further away from inclusion,
• Considerable increase in love for self… perhaps the worst disease of them all

D stands for Dependability

Dependability is about doing what you’ve said you’ll do. But then, when A, B & C are messed up, expecting anything with D can be illusionary. Lack of dependability leads to following diseases:

• Isolation,
• False play of numbers to somehow regain some credibility,
• Increase in directionless hustle,
• Significant increase in verbal diarrhea.

I wish health for leaders!