4. Don’t answer emails, voice mails and text messages.
An administrator often finds herself in a position where she can’t move forward without feedback from another leader. When the leader won’t get back to her, she is left spinning her wheels, which is a waste of time. (See wasting time above.)
Highly effective leaders work with administrators to find the most effective channel and frequency of communication and respond promptly when their input is required. Ineffective leaders respond when they get around to it.
5. Don’t keep a commitment.
Administrators understand contracts, deadlines and due dates; they don’t understand leaders who don’t follow through on commitments. This is related to keeping receipts and showing up on time, but it goes much deeper.
When an administrator sees a leader waffle on commitments, he loses faith in the leader. If a leader can’t be trusted, he can’t be followed. Jesus said it this way, “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.”
6. Don’t include them in the decision.
Leaders are tempted to bypass administrators when making decisions. They don’t want to be bothered with facts and details, they just want to charge the hill.
The challenge is, the administrator often knows things about the hill the leader has never considered. A poor administrator is an obstacle to a vision, a great administrator is a key to successfully executing the vision. When a leader bypasses an administrator, they may save time in the short term, but they will lose support and information necessary for the mission to succeed.
7. Change course without warning.
If an administrator knows well in advance of a change, he can research the implications, prepare the infrastructure and help chart the course. When he hears about the change with no time to prepare, he is left to scramble and pick up the pieces as best he can.
Organizations that “turn on a dime” tend to have a high staff-turnover rate and a relatively short run of growth. Organizations that take the time to understand the future and prepare well in advance for major changes tend to be healthy and growing. Which organization would you rather work for?
There will always be tension between different types of leaders in an organization, that is part of the challenge of leadership. When the leaders recognize differences as strengths and try to work together, the organization wins. When leaders simply work around the differences, everyone loses.
Which do you see in your environment?
