Bad Leaders Are Robbing Your Company Blind
The single most consistent thievery that exists in corporate America today isn't golden parachutes, embezzlement, or handshakes gone bad. It’s much simpler and way more common than that. You may have even done it yourself. What is it? It's when leaders do the job of their employees.
Why because this behavior is seen as acceptable and therefore goes unchecked (maybe even encouraged, but only when it makes life easier). It occurs in almost all organizations of all sizes in all industries. It occurs at all levels and is a definite outcome of the Peter Principle. It typically starts innocently or even with the best of intentions when situations like these occur
A top performer gets promoted to try and keep them from leaving the organization; they might even ask for this new challenge as a term for staying
A business outgrows its talent base, so the most senior or most talented individual contributor gets promoted to reward their commitment to the firm
A well-intended employee wants to try leadership out, so a well-intended leader gives them an opportunity because they have excelled as an individual contributor
But in these situations, and many others the new leader is unprepared for their new responsibilities. So what do they do when faced with adversity of struggling in the new role? They do what comes naturally, they go back to doing the work for themselves. After all isn’t that what made them successful and earned them the promotion into this leadership role.
This behavior occurs and often goes unchecked because few organizations take the time to consider (or measure) the costs. Instead the organization prefers to dismiss the issue labeling it the cost of doing business. Instead of fixing the situation they turn the check allowing leaders to continue to do the work of the individual contributor and shun their new responsibilities.
So what are the costs? Here are 5 real ways this is robbing your company blind
The company is overpaying for the work output. A more highly compensated resource is doing the work.
The employee is being deprived of the opportunity to grow. This creates complacency which leads to boredom which leads to lost productivity or lost customer engagement. Inc.
The manager is depriving the organization of completing their managerial responsibilities like strategy, vision, and employee development which prevents the company from identifying and pursuing growth opportunities. This leads to lost potential revenue.
The manager is creating risk by not building a leadership pipeline; any form of risk is a ticking financial time bomb and the impacts are impossible to predict or prepare for. Harvard Business Review
Your employees become disengaged and leave. Lack of engagement is one of the top reasons people leave a company (that and bad managers). Turnover is the #1 people cost for businesses. https://www.eaglesflight.com/blog/the-link-between-employee-engagement-and-staff-retention
A final thought. Daniel Pink’s book Drive concludes that autonomy and mastery are two key factors that lead to employee engagement. Think of it this way…
You can’t master that which you aren’t allowed to do and you can’t be autonomous when the boss needs to hold your hand.
What can you do? Stop doing for others what they can do for themselves. Leaders are uniquely positioned in an organization to do leadership things like
Set strategy and vision
Determine what things get measured and rewarded
Invest in talent and help them grow their career
Remove roadblocks and barriers
In order to make room to do leadership things managers must get comfortable delegating, coaching, recognition and getting out of the way of competent employees.