Unfortunately, I continue to hear from way too many people about the negative impact their leaders have on them. Recently, a friend told me about their leader, who had told him over and over during the past year that he had “saved her”. He is an “A player” on the team, but at the time of his performance review, the leader’s actions didn’t match their words. That same leader hadn’t held the required “One on One” monthly meeting with that team member for 18 months, and the leader is also poor at resolving conflict on the team. No wonder that employee is now looking to move to a different leader.
Another person told me that they were concerned about the leader they were assigned to because their position was not deeply technical, and the word was that this leader only valued technical skills. When I checked with them recently about how things were going, they responded that the team hadn’t really seen much of the leader lately. They just figured that the leader was working on their own development and didn’t have time for the team.
Leaders will always have an impact on their team members, either a positive one, or a negative one. A good leader of course wants that impact to be a positive one. A bad leader will often cause a team member to become so dissatisfied that they will leave the team, and perhaps even the entire organization. Continue reading →