Leaders Always Find It Harder When They Can't Trust Their Co-Leaders

One of the greatest disappointments, and initially one of my biggest surprises, that I have encountered in my more than three decades training leaders, is that quite often, the harder working, most visioning, best trained and most capable leader is confronted by far more obstacles than those that are merely "leader by ascension." When I refer to "leaders by ascension," I refer to the great majority of organizational leaders that are ineffective, untrained, procrastinate, and lack the vision of a true leader.

I have surmised that the reason for this situation is that the most dedicated leaders often become disappointed in, and begin to lack confidence in, their co-leaders. Many ineffective leaders make a commitment to do something, but then follow the path of least resistance, often blaming others, over-delegating to unqualified or untrained individuals, refuse to pay attention to necessary details, or unwilling to "rock the boat."

For most otherwise effective leaders, this can create a considerable amount of stress, often causing the individual to waste valuable time dealing with personality conflicts, or issues that develop because something that another committed to was not in a timely and/ or a correct basis, thus often exacerbating what should have been a somewhat minor issue into something major.

My examination into leadership teams at most organization indicates that by the end of the time that the team works together, there is usually very little friendship or understanding, far less respect of each other than when the term began, much contentiousness, often anger, blaming, and even sometimes resorting to juvenile "name calling." I have come to believe that it is due, in part to frustration, and largely to the fact that most people in leadership positions are either unqualified, or untrained to be in that situation.

When there are situations where there are volunteer leaders and paid staff, it us usually even worse. Some leaders have a higher opinion of the staff than others, some try to befriend instead of being their "boss," and some merely do not understand how to effectively deal with and train staff, in order to achieve optimum performance.

It should be no surprise that there is so much "burnout" amongst volunteer leaders, because the positions generally require a larger than anticipated amount of time, effort, and commitment. These people should try to relax, and simply be proud of the fact that they've done their best, and you can't have expectations of other people based on what you do.