Leadership Values Misaligned
Many scenarios are acted out daily where team members don’t get on, and it’s up to the line managers to help facilitate smoothing out the problems. Productivity will not be effective as much as it should be, and cracking of whips or mediating are typically used to get things moving. But what happens when the leaders fall out of line with and disagree with crucial issues? What happens when the leaders choose not to have difficult conversations with their employees?
There probably won’t be an obvious example at first with the business productivity in the same way as employees not performing correctly. The cracks, so to speak, will be slight. Over time, these cracks can become gaping chasms which ultimately will have a devastating effect on the viability of the business. When the business’s leadership team starts to disagree, the core values and beliefs are under constant pressure. Every decision made by the leaders runs contrary to other leader’s thinking and their established values.
Leadership Needs Uncomfortable Conversations to Happen
Often in my experiences in the past, problems occur due to uncomfortable conversations with employees. The need to be liked outweighs what is required for the business to achieve its goals.
Managing people can be tough, managing people with problems who are not performing well is tougher. So much tougher that the leaders will choose not to have the uncomfortable direct conversations to improve their business.
Leaders will decide to have their businesses suffer and struggle to the detriment of the larger team and its customers. Leaders will choose to bury their heads in the sand, hoping the problem employees will change their behaviour on their own.
A difficult conversation can be overcome, leadership success can be found. And realignment of company values can be achieved by talking and importantly by listening, as the problems can often be a case of not being heard the right way.
