Concerns Need To Be Addressed On A Timely Basis

Organizations and their ineffective leaders are often their own worst enemies. In more than three decades of consulting, I have observed repeated occurrences when effective leaders would have taken decisive action to address a concern before it became a larger issue, but that untrained, unskilled and ineffective leaders refrained from responding, using excuses like, "I don't want to blow this out of proportion," or "It's just a misunderstanding." As bad as those excuses are in terms of competent leadership and management, it is even worse when someone in a leadership position states that they will find out what's going on, often using cliched expressions like, "I'll get to the bottom of it," and then neglect the issue entirely.

Effective leadership is a hands-on exercise. If someone does not want "to get their hands dirty," they probably should avoid leadership roles. Procrastinating on taking action when there is a first indication of a potential issue, generally results in the issue becoming more and more difficult to resolve.

One of the first warning signals of potential issues is when their is consistent tardiness, in terms of getting promised items completed. If deadlines are constantly missed, errors are constantly made, etc., that usually indicates that something is going wrong. While there will always be some errors made, when that becomes the norm, there should be an indication that their is a potential wider issue.

If I received even a small amount of money for every excuse I have heard both volunteer leaders as well as paid staff use in the past three decades, I would never have to work again. Those that often do not take heed of issues, or say that they "don't want to rock the boat," or that they will "wait and see, and let it work out" often come back later, with a bit of revisionist history, stating that they were against something or wary of it for a long time. Individuals who do not act on concerns are not part of the solution, but rather perpetuate an issue into turning into a problem.

Having assisted numerous organizations in interviewing, qualifying, and recommending paid staff, as well as having served as both a Director of Operations as well as a Development Director for a few not-for-profit organizations, I can certainly state with certainty that most staff members are ill-prepared for their positions, and that most volunteer leaders do not even fully understand what their needs are. Because of this, when staff under-performs, it takes many of these volunteer leaders far too long to properly handle the situation.

There are many sports stories about coaches that considered players late if they did not get to team meetings at least fifteen minutes before it was scheduled for. Without timeliness, issues develop, and are far more difficult to resolve because by the time they are acted on, it is quite late.