Leading With A Chip On Your Shoulderinstant payday loans onlineinstant payday loans online
A common characteristic of many leaders is to use anger in getting people to do things. The author calls it "leading with a chip on your shoulder", and he shows why such a leadership trait should be avoided.
By Brent Filson - 2005
A Marine company commander I knew of had a memorable way of introducing
himself to his platoon commanders. He called them into his office,
gave them each a laminated wallet card, then dismissed them without
saying a word.
The wallet card read, "Seven Ways To Get Me Angry."
I don't remember what they were, probably standard leadership
guidelines like, "You make excuses." "You don't come through on your
commitments." "You look out for your career and not the troops." They
were important for the commander; and I guess for his lieutenants, but
they're not important here.
What's important has to do with the leadership style they communicated.
After all, if after all these years, I don't remember the specific
guidelines but the style they evoked, there must be something to
remember in that style.
In truth, the list was much longer than seven. He had a hair-trigger
temper triggered at the slightest provocation. He was a good leader.
His troops accomplished missions. But I believed, then and now, he
could've been be better.
I call the style, "leading with a chip on your shoulder", and I am sure you've experienced such leaders.
In early American history, people often proved their mettle by putting
chips of wood on their shoulders and challenging others to knock them
off. Today, a person who has "a chip on his shoulder" is angry at the
world and daring people to provoke him.
It's been my experience that, generally speaking, chip-on-the-shoulder
leaders don't realize their full potential to get results.
There are two reasons for this:
One, getting great results is a matter of having great relationships.
Great leadership isn't simply about ordering people to do things, it's
about having those people be ardently committed to doing them. Getting
people to be so committed involves the cultivation of deep, human
relationships between the leader and the people. Great leaders know
how to cultivate those relationships. People who have trouble
cultivating good relationships in their personal life, often have
trouble cultivating productive relationships as a leader.
Clearly, some of the greatest leaders in history -- Winston Churchill
comes to mind -- have had poor relationships with their colleagues and
family. However, it's been my experience working with thousands of
leaders in business, government, and non-profit organizations that
great leaders in these organizations have, for the most part, developed
and maintained healthy personal relationships. A chip-on-the-shoulder
personality trait is often an impediment to such relationships.
Two, here is the main reason the style is less than satisfactory. The
chip often becomes the issue, not the results. Marines often focused on
their commander's explosive temper, or on nullifying it, and thus put
less focus on the mission at hand.
Look, being a Marine can be a nasty business. Leaders are not in the
business of being nice to the troops. Leaders are in the business of
having the troops accomplish the mission. That applies to leader
everywhere in all organizations whether they are in a nasty business or
not: They must accomplish the mission, they must have the people get
results.
But often personality quirks get in the way of results. The seven ways
that got him angry were not stepping stones to accomplishing the
mission stumbling blocks.
2005© The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – Celebrating 25 years of helping leaders of top companies worldwide achieve outstanding results every day. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get his FREE report "7 Steps To Leadership Mastery"