The Inept Wizard

The Right Job and the Wrong Leaders

We all have horror stories about what can happen when the leaders are inept or poorly chosen. Here is my horror story, one of many. Many years ago in a land far, far away I was part of an organization that had precisely the wrong people in positions of leadership. That doesn't necessarily mean they were not leaders, they were simply the wrong leaders.

In fact, as I reminisce, I really can't imagine where those aggressive leaders would fit. Someone explained this craziness to me; the leaders were using the business model in a position that called for extraordinary sensitivity and well-polished people skills. Ghastly things happen when the fit is exceptionally prickly at best.

While attending a manager's meeting in that faraway place, I heard "leaders" condone and even incomprehensively encourage an environment of apprehension and intimidation. As you might imagine, I was astounded and deeply saddened. I felt as if I had landed face down in the Land of Oz. The Wizard was in control of the citizenry and he was in a particularly dictatorial mood. Perhaps his balloon had sprung a leak.

Though I was outnumbered, I thought I would give logic a shot. I suggested attempting the novel (for this company). For example, we might begin by valuing, motivating and inspiring our employees. This was met with the same cool dismissal as If I had said, "Hey, guys, let's click our heels and go back to Kansas. I don't think I like Oz."

I am at a loss to understand intimidation driven leadership styles -- especially when coercion is the worst possible choice for an employment worksite. In order to lead, one must understand what motivates each unique member of the team. Few people are motivated by a whip and they will get even when the opportunity presents itself.

Employees' maladaptive, passive-aggressive behaviors can often be traced back to an antagonistic leadership style. If an agency has high turnover, high absenteeism, frequent tardiness, and numerous blunders -- look for an aggressive leadership style.

You might wonder what happened in this dysfunctional organization. As one would suspect professional workers left to find more pleasant, team oriented workplaces. While the remaining employees suffered from disgruntlement and intemperate resume polishing -- in fact, they proclaimed it their favorite pastime.

The optimal leaders for this particular situation, if anyone in corporate had thought it through from a personality type perspective, would have been ENFP or ENTP leaders with an ISTJ thrown in for stability. These are leadership personality types who could make positive changes and are interested in such tools as mentoring, empowering, stimulating, and encouraging.

These types would also advocate the use of impartial assessment tools to gauge employee success. When making leadership decisions, if one evaluates and understands the position and employee variables and personality types the job will get done—exceptionally well.

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