Four Signs A Leader/Manager Might Be In Trouble

Good leaders and managers know how to spot when a subordinate in a leadership role is getting in trouble. I have found that these four trends have resurfaced every time I have had to step in and provide some coaching.

The four signs you must always be on the lookout for are:

1. Your leader keeps doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result = Insanity (as defined by Albert Einstein)

• Time to step in and make this person realize that you have observed this behavior and point out that a new strategy or tactic must be considered. Here, using clear facts and data, key performance indicators, and metrics are key to ensuring the leader sees the same trends that you have observed and gets grounded on the reality as it is and things as they really are. Once this is established, you can begin to help him/her explore new possibilities that they might have been blind to.

1. Your leader and his/her team are putting in longer and longer hours and appear at a stand-still or might even be going backwards = Distraction

• This can be a result of a leader having run out of new ideas, digging their heels in, and thinking that things will improve if everyone just works harder. Have a meeting to discuss why everyone is working so much harder and what new business activity is being worked on to warrant this increase in workload. If the leader cannot point to a clearly defined shift that will directly drive the key performance indicators and metrics to move in the right direction, then he/she might be focusing on quantity of effort instead of quality. Help them refocus and reach out to the team to find out what other solutions might have not been considered.

1. Your leader’s direct reports no longer appear to connect with the leader’s vision and priorities = Disfunctionality

• If the first level leaders/supervisors have become noticeably disengaged with their leader, it usually indicates that they have lost confidence in the direction they are being led and/or the leader. You can usually observe this by attending a couple of his/her management meetings. I have found that the body language of the direct reports in the meeting, coupled with the level of participation in discussions, can often speak volumes of how connected or disconnected they might be from their leader. Catching this behavior early will be key to being able to salvage the leader’s credibility and helping him/her see what is going on and work on addressing the root cause of the issue.

1. He/she needs an external engagement survey to tell him what is wrong with his/her organization = Disconnection

• If an existing leader (as opposed to a newly appointed leader who just took over) needs an engagement survey to find out why his/her employees are disengaged, it usually indicates that the leader is out of touch with the employees’ reality. There are plenty of tools available to leaders to remain aware of the level of engagement in a company. Good leaders will use management by walking around, skip level meetings, all-employee meetings, town hall meetings, blogs, and other forums to always have the pulse of the organization. If these aren’t being used, or if they are being used but the employees are scared to communicate what is truly going on and their true opinions about how the company is being led, you have a big problem. In my experience, this type of situation doesn’t surface overnight. It is many months, if not a couple of years, in the making, which means that it will be almost impossible to address it without first making a leadership change.

Leaders need to develop and mentor other leaders in their organization. Spotting the four trends above and addressing them in a timely manner can provide invaluable opportunities for development, maturing, and learning. Waiting too long, however, might result in a leader making irreparable damage with the relationships with his direct reports.