Have you ever been in real pain?
Any kind will do - physical, emotional, logical.
Pain is distracting.
I can remember my first kidney stone; alone in a hotel room in Berlin. I had two hundred guests downstairs for dinner and my team waiting for my input. My only thought was:
‘this is not fun. I don’t want to endure any more - shoot me, now!’
I was no use to my team or myself.
Bad Leadership has a similar effect on your teams and your business.
Like pain, it is invisible.
All you can see is the effect.
After a while, people in pain cannot focus on anything else.
The pain colours every waking moment.
It distracts from constructive thought and conversation.
It clouds judgement.
Pain needs treatment or it will treat itself - in ways that usually cause harm.
If you see the behaviour, you need to act.
If you cause the behaviour, you need to reflect.
Decisions are sometimes hard and cause pain; that is part of leading.
But pain caused by your behaviour is inexcusable; that is bad leadership.
Comments