Check Your Leadership EGO at the Door

So I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I’m pretty sure every organization has one of those leaders that I call a “scapegoat leader.” That’s the individual who blames their problems -- or lack of meeting goals -- on another leader or group. It’s everyone’s fault, but their own.  

Recently, we had an opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and John Maxwell. The conversation regarded Leadership Ego and it really hit home. Oh my, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard excuses or blame games over the years. From every level of organizations -- and even we aren’t immune to it. 

So I wanted to share with you my takeaways on that conversation and how I think they impact all of us MSPs.  

1. Authoritarians have the problem of “Leadership Ego” all the time. In our channel, you can easily tell there’s a challenge when your people won’t tell the leader the truth. How often have we heard “well that’s just John…” “He’s just that way” doesn’t excuse the fact that egos hinder good leadership. Let’s not excuse what is considered bad behavior, or lack of concern, as a personality characteristic. They may think they’re right, or it’s how they perceive a situation, but in truth they probably aren’t. Let’s use Vladimir Putin for example. In his point of view, he’s a great Russian nationalist who is restoring Russia to its previous greatness and expanding back to its empire. But is that how the world sees it? 
2. When you look at leaders from different cultures, what are the two things you admire in great leaders? They have vision about the world as it should be, not what it is. A great example of this is Nelson Mandela. And they’re capable of seeing leadership capabilities in others. Great leaders put people around them who can compensate for their own weaknesses. You don’t need to be the best at everything, but you do need to be able to identify your own areas of opportunity and surround yourself with people who compensate for it.  
3. In order to do so, you need to surround yourself with “truth tellers” who will tell you the truth no matter what or, as I call it, the good, bad, and the ugly. Growth requires honest feedback and assessment, but if you have surrounded yourself with a team that always agrees with you, then do you truly have an honest perspective? You have to have trust that they are really speaking the truth to you, irrespective of whether you are going to like the conversation.  
4. Nothing kills an organization more than gossip. Leaders who gossip about other leaders are probably also gossiping about you. Whether they are talking about the owner and how “he just doesn’t get it,” or worse, we probably all have heard some of the gossip before. It’s important that we stop the gossip immediately and do not allow it to spread. There’s a difference between constructive feedback and gossip. Someone saying that “John is difficult to work with,” without any context is gossiping. Someone saying that “John is struggling to understand our ticketing system and time entry rules. As a result, the rest of the team is struggling to get an understanding of where his ticket stands currently.” There is a HUGE difference and leaders who are struggling with their own egos and biases will often make these offhanded and very general comments, not understanding the damage they’re doing to their company’s culture and the persons reputation. There is a difference between differences and vilification.  
5. Sometimes we just should NOT share our thoughts and great leaders are able to keep their own counsel when it’s important. Change in an organization is hard for some people and there’s no need to create unnecessary chaos, or gossip, until you absolutely must. This does not mean we don’t collaborate in decision-making, but we are able to not disclose everything to everyone. Whether that is someone leaving, a new hire, changes in org structure, we need to be able to understand time and place. Also, we don’t need to share the feedback of one manager on another unless we can change the impact, and even then, better to position it in a constructive way rather than stating that “John says that people don’t want to work with you.” No good will come from this. Provide positive improvements to build a stronger and more collaborative working environment.  
6. And finally, great leaders unite their friends and divide their enemies.  You have to recognize that some things have to be managed and not fixed. While we want to be able to fix every problem within our organization, some we simply can’t. And not every ego can be controlled. That makes a very tough decision for the leader, but it’s one we must make. Leadership ego will destroy your company if you’re unable to manage the individual, and if you can’t, then a decision must be made to transition that person out.  

It's no longer acceptable to have bad leaders in organizations. We as a community have to be intentional about developing our own leadership skills and ensuring that we clearly communicate what good looks like for us ― and our organizations. If your leaders haven’t taken formal leadership training, and you can see the ego, gossip, and lack of accountability in your organization, maybe it’s time we discuss leadership training in hope of helping them learn to check their ego at the door.