A Marine company commander knew he had a way of written submissions to her platoon commanders. He called them into his office, gave each a laminated card, then dismissed without saying a word.
The wallet card read, "Seven Ways To Get Me angry."
I do not remember what they were, probably, the guidelines as a standard leadership: "You apologize." "You do not come with your commitment." "Are you out for your career and not the troops." Were important for the captain, and I think for his lieutenants, but they are not important here.
What is important has to do with leadership style that communicated. After all, if after all these years, I can not remember the specific guidelines, but the style that evokes, there must be something to remember in this style.
In truth, the list was much longer than seven. He had a hair-trigger temper activated at the slightest provocation. It was a good leader. His troops carried out the missions. But I believed then, as now, might have been better.
I call the style, "which leads with a chip on your shoulder," and I'm sure you've experienced these leaders.
In early American history, people often demonstrated their courage by putting wood chips on their shoulders and challenge others to throw them away. Today, a person who has "a chip on his shoulder" is angry with the world and the audacity to provoke people.
It 'been my experience that, in general, chip-on-the-shoulder leaders do not realize their full potential to achieve results.
There are two reasons for this:
One, achieving great results is a matter of having good relations. great leadership is not just ordering people to do things, is to have those people long to be committed to do. Getting people to be so busy means the cultivation of deep, human relationships between the leader and the people. Great leaders know how to cultivate those relationships. People who have difficulties to cultivate good relations with their personal life, often find it difficult to cultivate fruitful relationships as a leader.
Clearly, some of the greatest leaders in history - Winston Churchill comes to mind - have had little contact with their colleagues and family. However, it has been my experience working with thousands of leaders in business, government and non-profit organizations that the great leaders of these organizations have, for the most part, developed and maintained healthy personal relationships. A chip on his shoulder personality trait is often an impediment to such relationships.
Two, here is the main reason for the style is less satisfactory. The chip often becomes the problem, not the results. Marines often focused on explosive temper their commander, or cancel, and thus put less focus on the mission at hand.
Look, being a Marine can be a bad deal. The leaders are not in the business of being kind to the troops. Leaders are in the business of having the troops carry out the mission. This applies to leaders around the world in all organizations that are in a bad deal or not: they must carry out the mission, they must have people get results.
But personality quirks often get in the way of results. The seven ways in which they were angered springboards to fulfill the mission of obstacles.
2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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