As business leaders it is our responsibility to model the behavior we want from those that work for us. It doesn’t matter if you are the CEO, the department manager or any level in between, employees look to leaders for cues on what is acceptable, and what isn’t in terms of behavior. If the organization isn’t functioning as you want, take a look at your leadership team. Are you, as the leadership team exhibiting the behaviors you want from others? Have you, as a team had conversations and taken responsibility for how you act to those around you?I’ve worked with leadership teams for over twenty years. Few take the time to recognize and own the responsibility for their actions and the impact it has on everyone below them. They don’t even think about the example they are setting, and actions that others see as tolerated. I have identified five habits that have negative consequences for the company.

Being Competitive

Ok, being competitive isn’t a serious problem. When competitive turns into rivalry and destructive behavior trust erodes, productivity is reduced and unnecessary time is spent managing conflict.

It’s not unusual for team members to be competitive, especially in leadership roles. Most people once they get into leadership are interested in moving to the next level and the reality is that as you move up the corporate ladder there are fewer positions. So it’s understandable to have some competition, and when it’s healthy competition that can be good for the company as it keeps others on their toes. The problem exists when it’s not healthy.

I worked with a CEO of a recruiting firm. He delighted in pitting recruiters and office directors against each other. Quarterly there were awards dinners and he would talk about all the losers who didn’t make it there. You’d hear talk about the shortcuts people took make their numbers, fights over resources and more time wasted that you can imagine on topics that directly impact revenues and productivity. He missed what it was costing him to fuel his desire to pit people against each other.

An executive I worked with recognized that one of the senior leaders was insecure and those insecurities lead to competitive behavior that was destructive, but he did nothing about it. He tolerated it because he believed they had a necessary and unique skill set. By ignoring this behavior, the message he gave was one of you is more important than the others, I don’t expect everyone to play by the same rules or have the same standards, and whatever happens is acceptable, regardless of the consequences.
Leadership teams must operate as a united front. You can disagree with the decisions but when you leave the room you must align with the goals of the team and have shared accountability.

Poor Planning or Priority Setting

Recently I discussed with an executive how to have a conversation with the CEO, without seeming like they were pointing fingers or complaining. They wanted to discuss how the lack of planning and/or scattered priorities negatively impact the company. His team had to work closely with a director on another team who constantly changed their mind, which created additional work which created loss of productivity and a huge negative impact on morale.

We discussed how he could quantify the costs of continuing to do business this way. As a leader what costs are being incurred due to poor planning or priorities change what seems like every hour? Can you quantify the real costs…loss of revenue, accounts receivable delays, overtime or time spent redoing projects that could be spent in other areas…you get the picture. Then there are the costs you may not be able to categorize such as customer satisfaction or employee morale but they will be potential costs.

A senior executive team had invested a year assessing the value and costs of a new initiative for the company. Fifteen executives were involved from the CEO through Senior Vice Presidents. At the end they agreed on the project, staffing and a number of other items to get the project kicked off. A month later several of the leadership team wanted to revisit specific aspects of the decision, of course the part that affected their area. What does it cost a company to delay moving forward on a decision made over the course of a year? In this case it was costing them $50,000 plus A WEEK not to begin the project.

Change is part of business but that doesn’t mean you decide planning can’t happen, or that priorities change based on the whim of a client, a prospect or someone in the organization. Every leader interfaces and works with other leaders, and their planning, or lack there of can and will impact the other groups you work with. Leaders need to be disciplined, focus on the most strategic priorities and not allow what’s happening around them to take them off course. This starts with planning.

Eagerness to Please the Boss

This isn’t about competition, it’s about leaders who say yes to please the boss. A leadership team where one or more members are focused on pleasing will miss key opportunities to learn from each other and grow. The organization suffers when leaders don’t speak up or when they blanketly say what they think the boss wants to hear.

Individual Leaders Needs Overshadow Organizational Needs

Everyone in a leadership role needs to be a little selfish. You’re competing for resources and have goals you need to meet. Those two additional headcount you could use and it’s in your best interest to make a case for your department. The question to ask yourself is will those two additional employees be of more value somewhere else in the company. Are you thinking about what is best for the company, or best for you? Sometimes those needs will be in conflict. Effective leadership teams are able to give up the needs for the needs of the team/company. They need to believe and trust that what is good for the company will be good for them.

Unnecessary Conflict

This is huge, and at times difficult to define. When is conflict reasonable, and when is it unnecessary? You can’t put two people together without having differences of options and views…and that can be healthy, if handled well. Disagreements are not the problem, it’s how we handle those disagreements. Do you fight behind closed doors but come out with a decision that everyone stands behind? Or do you continue to fight, even after the decision has been made, tell others how unhappy you are with the decision or even subtly sabotage others?

A team I worked with couldn’t gell. Part of the problem was inconsistency in processes and procedures that adjusted every time they seemed to get in the way, but that was only part of the problem. There were constant, weekly if not daily little conflicts that were unnecessary and stemmed from two of the leaders wanting power, and two others who lack self confidence and went out of their way to undermine others. They would complain about everything, and not just amongst themselves but in emails and meetings with their mutual bosses. The president would call me and ask me how to handle what he considered sibling rivalry. It was way more than that, but how it played out to him, and others was as a bunch of kids fighting for the sake of fighting.

I sometime ‘shadow coach’ and executive or a leadership team. My role is simply to observe their behaviors, interactions, communication and actions. Then I will share with them what I have observed (the positive and the not so positive). We discuss the consequences of bad habits and I try to quantify the costs of continuing in a way that is not productive.

You may not be able to hire me to ‘shadow coach’ you or your leadership team, but you could video or minimally audio tape your meetings. What do you think you will see? Sports teams review their game day videos to see where they can make improvements, where they missed opportunities and help them become more cohesive and effective. Take a page out of their play book.

When the leadership team isn’t cohesive it ripples throughout the company. Your actions and behavior are seen by others and those who work for you take their cues from you on how to act. And don’t assume your behavior is only observed by your team, it isn’t. The rest of the leadership team sees it, and others within the company. Trust erodes, employees don’t know what is expected or how to behave and productivity is reduced. Effective leadership teams know this and work together to model for everyone around them how to behave.