If you were to sit down and write out your personality traits and then list a couple of ways they show up as a leadership strength and as a leadership weakness, would you be able to do it?
Many of us know our character strengths, and over time have worked to develop them. At the same time, not being cognizant of our weaknesses can blindside our success.
You see, most leaders understand that all their traits, behaviors and even beliefs are exposed. They put their character on display every day. Employees rightfully attribute the organization’s success or failure to how the top leader leads.
Think about it. A leader’s prominence in the organization automatically designates their strengths as assets. Alternatively, their weaknesses can be considered liabilities, blocking the organization from reaching its potential.
Shift Your Balance Sheet
Although not a fond exercise, some of the most significant personal growth can come from exploring what behavior is blocking collective success. The best leaders make the decision to understand all of their traits, many of which they never notice. Turning their liabilities into assets is the most valuable undertaking of their professional careers.
When this topic comes up with my coaching clients, I remind them that every leader has weaknesses of some kind. For the most part, leadership liabilities have to do with personality rather than a lack of technical skills or knowledge. Leaders can’t look to others to compensate for their personality shortcomings. Only the leader can address these.
Even when other co-leaders bring effective assets to the organization, an ineffective leader with liabilities can undo them, as leadership experts Robert Anderson and William Adams explain in Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most (Wiley, 2019). They put it succinctly by stating that “leaders with liabilities simply get in their own way.”
Don’t Get in Your Own Way
How? I have seen some leaders observe disappointing results and reason that they just need to work harder. They press more or put in longer hours to compensate for a perceived deficiency. This is rarely the solution. In fact, with an ineffective style or disruptive personality, working harder can exacerbate the liabilities. More of a bad thing is generally a worse thing.
Leaders who bring character or personality liabilities to their organizations see a variety of debilitating results. Diminished productivity, morale, unity, loyalty and progress are just a few of the outcomes. Ultimately, the organization is unsuccessful, and so is its leader.
Anderson and Adams point to three primary self-centric tendencies that cause leadership liabilities: disliking people, devaluing people and having emotional deficiencies.
What do you think? Which of your traits are assets, or liabilities? I’d love to hear from you. You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here, or on LinkedIn.
