Whether you’re a church small group leader or a CEO, I’m immediately going to shock some of you with the following statement, but give me a chance to unpack my idea before you write me off.
In my opinion, the greatest leadership myth is this: Leaders should maximize their strengths and ignore their weaknesses.
Leadership experts promote this idea quite a bit. The basic concept is that leaders don’t need to waste time trying to improve on the skills they aren’t naturally good at. Instead they should tap into their talents and become even better in those areas. 95% of the time I agree with this idea. However, there are some weaknesses that leaders can not ignore.
There are three leadership skills that people must have to lead well: Casting vision, executing strategy and fostering relationships. Being unskilled or untalented in any of these three areas goes beyond weaknesses and moves into the dangerous territory of liabilities.
Few leaders are naturally gifted in all three skills, but think about the best leaders you’ve known. They could do all three skills at least marginally well. In all likelihood they excelled at one or two of the skills. The one or two that they weren’t naturally good at, they still did pretty well. Now think about the worst leaders you’ve known. They may have been good at one or two of these skills, but they were horrible at one or more of them.
For example, many of us have worked for a person who had the relational IQ of a caterpillar. Their lack of ability to foster relationships was not a weakness, it was a liability. People felt unimportant, undervalued, maybe even used. That experience taught us that fostering relationships is a non-negotiable for leadership.
Many of us have worked for a person who couldn’t put an organized strategy into place if their life depended on it. They were nice and they had great ideas, but they just couldn’t get any traction. Their lack of ability to execute a strategy was not a weakness, it was a liability. It cost the organization lots of time, money, and even personnel. That experience taught us that executing strategy is a non-negotiable for leadership.
Perhaps you’ve worked for a person who couldn’t motivate or inspire you. They cared about you personally and they ran an organized ship, but the work felt stale, monotonous and uninspired. People liked working for this person, but only for so long. Eventually they got bored and wanted to move on. Those who stayed, stayed for the paycheck and endured the lack of passion. This leader’s lack of ability to cast vision was not a weakness, it was a liability. That experience taught you that casting vision is a non-negotiable for leadership.
Now think about yourself as a leader. If you are untalented in one of the three critical leadership skills, don’t think for a minute that it’s a weakness you can ignore. You have a leadership liability that must be eliminated before you can be an effective leader. In my eBook Triple-Threat Leadership I unpack these ideas more and provide an assessment that helps you see your default approach to leadership. It will make you aware of your liabilities and help you take steps to eliminate them.
Whether you use my book or some other tool, address your liabilities today. The cost of keeping them around is just too high! ‘Nuff said.
