I have a pet peeve about leadership. Actually lots.
But, this one is especially strong.
I have a pet peeve against controlling leadership.
I hate it. It's so counter-productive to progress. It holds the team back from reaching it's full potential. It stifles leaders. It never builds healthy teams.
And, the fact is if I allowed myself I could easily be a controlling leader. In fact, command is a "strength" of mine, according to Strengths Finders assessment. It can quickly become a weakness.
So, I discipline myself against controlling leadership.
I delegate.
I purposively bite my tongue.
I allow people to do things differently from the way I would do them.
I don't micromanage.
I yield to others on my team.
And, controlling leadership empowers people.
It means people take initiative.
They make decisions without me.
They proceed on their own.
But, that can create problems for the team.
It often causes miscommunication.
It can lead to fragmentation of the team.
It frequently brings frustration.
People lead. That's no surprise. It's what they've been empowered to do. But, many times they lead in different directions. Sometimes they lead too quickly. Often they lead into their own agendas — even outside the direction of the rest of the team.
And, the only way to keep that from happening is to be a controlling leader. So, we have to learn to live in the tension. We have to get better at keeping others informed. As leaders, we have to keep the vision in front of us and keep directing us, without controlling us, in the overall direction we need to go.
It's messy. But, it's best.
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GracedAgain/~3/tLise1ivDQ4/the-downside-of-not-being-a-controlling-leader.html
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