Far smarter people than me have written about what is required for effective leadership, but this week I have been reflecting upon the most necessary ingredient: courage.
I have had the pleasure of interacting with many leaders of varying quality over many years, and all of them have at least a few obvious strengths, but the common denominator in the truly outstanding leaders, are those who handle awkward, difficult or downright scary situations head-on. They don’t always get it right the first time, but the outstanding leader does not back down because she fears reprisal from her boss, peers, direct reports or some other stakeholder.
It is amazing how many people have a strong need to liked by those who report through to them. The relationship between a boss and his/her employees should always be respectful, but it does not need to be friendly. Many leaders hate to deliver bad news, or say “no” to people. Other leaders won’t deal with performance issues because it might involve a difficult conversation, or let an employee who should have been fired years ago get away with perpetual sub-par performance.
This is exquisite BS.
It is a form of dishonesty, and certainly demonstrates a lack of integrity when leaders fail to engage in difficult conversations. Progressive organizations have figured this out, and gotten rid of managers who are afraid to get rid of people.
The right thing to do is rarely the easy thing to do, but it is the burden of leadership. If you are too chicken$hit to do the right thing, then you should either grow a pair, or wait to be fired. The choice is yours