Does Your Team Have A Leadership Problem? Take This Quiz To Find Out.

Great leaders are some of the most valuable assets a business can have. They support a healthy and productive working environment; they know how to both push people to meet challenges and celebrate wins; and they are active in lifting up the entire organization by helping their people develop skills and grow in their roles. Good leaders are standard bearers; setting an example of success at every level.

The problem is that best leadership practices are rarely taught, leaving leaders to rely on trial and error as they progress up the ladder. This method can have serious consequences when teams are relying on leaders for team building, crisis decision making, timely communication, and other key competencies that set the tone for the entire organization.

It’s normal to need help developing leadership skills, and it starts with getting honest about where leaders can fail. Bad leaders can impact their teams in a few predictable ways —

1. They make it difficult for other people to succeed.

2. They don’t have a plan in place for meeting goals or seizing opportunities.

3. They push their people so hard that their teams burn out — driving turnover and the loss of top talent.

4. They don’t invest time or resources towards developing employees, creating an “everyone for themselves” environment.

Bad leadership can drag an entire company down — faster than you think.

However, all too often, poor leaders are unaware of the impact they are having on their teams. This is why self-awareness is the first and most necessary step towards changing a bad leadership dynamic.

IT’S TIME FOR A SHORT QUIZ:

1. Have you noticed struggling or discontent among your people?

2. Has there been an unusual exodus of direct reports recently?

3. Are you micro-managing the work of others, not knowing why important tasks aren’t getting done?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, it might be time to ask yourself: are YOU part of the problem?

These are hard questions that require deep introspection and firm action. Good leaders aren’t made overnight — personal development requires a long term commitment to growth. Fortunately, small changes go a long way towards building great leaders.

Take these steps to jump start the process of becoming a leader that makes great things happen for their people, teams, and organization.

1. Start with a personal leadership audit. What do you think you do really well as a leader? What do you suspect you could do differently? It’s time to get brutally honest with yourself — you’re not good at everything. Here’s a hint for the sometimes painful self-audit process: the tasks and decision-making moments that cause you the most stress may be a guide to the areas where you struggle the most as a leader.

2. Ask for feedback from your reports. What do THEY think you could do differently, and what do they appreciate about your leadership? An anonymous survey is a really useful tool here. If your team is struggling under subpar leadership, they may not feel psychologically safe to share their honest feedback. The survey should ask clear, specific questions, like — 1) What do you like about my leadership? 2) Are there any aspects of my leadership that holds you back? 3) What resources are you missing that I can provide? Another good solution to gathering honest feedback is to ask your team to gather, discuss privately, and submit their feedback as a team.

3. Listen closely to their feedback, and accept it without argument or defense. This step is key for creating a safe environment for you — and your team — to grow. If you find that you can’t say anything positive or at least neutral about the feedback, keep this in your back pocket: “Thank you so much for the feedback. I will review it closely.”

4. Make a plan for moving forward. Break the feedback down into action steps, and look into how mentorship or trainings can help you implement the steps.

If you suspect that your team or organization has a leadership problem — and you think you may be part of that problem — you’ve already taken a great first step. We can help you along the rest of the journey by supporting you with expert coaching, help designing anonymous services, 360 Feedback facilitation, and more. Contact us today to talk more about your leadership needs.

Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to grow leaders, build teams and drive results through great people strategy. Contact us to get proactive about expanding your company’s potential, and stay up-to-date with our latest news and leadership development updates here.