10 Tell-tale Traits of Terrible Leadership
The fact that you have gone beyond the title and started reading this post is proof that tapping into emotions is easy and tapping into negative emotions easier 😊
I have been thumbing through multiple books and articles on leadership and management as part of research that I am doing. That combined with experiences in my own professional life (including yours truly as a leader) have led me to distill my considered opinion into this blog post.
What I am about to present to you are traits that one must be on the lookout for if you are being led and even more so if you are the leader. There are ten tell-traits that one must be wary of. Every leader I know of or have read about has had at least one of these flaws. All leaders, depending on situation and context, are prone to displaying these traits. The challenge and a big one is when these traits are on display consistently.
The score on a scale of 1-10 would have a fictional superhero like character on one end (say Thor) and a villain (Thanos) on the other with Wanda as the inflection point between the forces of good and bad. Fictional for the simple reason, nobody is that perfect or even that flawed! To those unfamiliar with the Marvel Comic Universe – just replace the names with superheroes or villains with whom you are familiar.
So here are the Tell-Tale Traits in no specific order. How many can you associate with yourself or with a leader you know?
- Radio Silence: A leader who does not interact often with the team or interacts only when there is a task to be assigned or only on occasion or with an appointment is bound to end up as an unpopular one. Again, this is not to say that one must be an extrovert to be a good leader. It is accessibility that is crucial for leaders. Styles of interaction may differ but one thing that all good leaders do is make an effort to be seen in the trenches.
- Control Freak: While it is important to monitor progress, we all have seen leaders who get under your skin with their supervision. A key requirement for a leader is the ability to delegate tasks. There is skill associated with the ability to identify appropriate resources for the task and setting clear success metrics. A skill the Control Freak lacks.
- Decision Avoidance: This is thin ice. A leader is expected to be decisive. Procrastination, though avoidable, is still acceptable. After all, situations need to be analyzed and consequences weighed but a leader who constantly avoids taking decisions is trouble incarnate.
- Faff over Fact: A leader who often focusses on optics and is happy to gloss over facts is a potential integrity and ethics disaster waiting to happen. Convenient interpretation and cuts of data are a trap. A leader who accepts or looks the other way when a subordinate does it is worse. There will come a time when one too many facts have been overlooked or misrepresented. You do not want to be around when that happens.
- Emergency Brake: This is a trait often seen in conjunction with trait three above. A leader who is not fully or deeply engaged is often the one who resorts to the application of emergency brakes. In general, there is a lack of clarity or direction, and conflicting views abound. All work gets stopped, often with little or no explanation. A display of trait three ensues.
- Pomp over Purpose: Many new leaders are guilty of this. Some unfortunately continue with it. This is when leaders commission projects and campaigns, hold workshops and events needlessly under the garb of collaboration or building wider, deeper understanding. The return on time and money invested quite frankly is not a consideration nor are “understanding” or “collaboration” well-defined objectives. The idea is not to say no to such exercises, it is doing them with clear outcomes.
- Trophy Chaser: Again, there is nothing wrong with ambition or going for the win. If that were the case, there would be no examples from sport or war, especially, when it came to leadership. Winning is important, participation is important. But doing anything for the sake of just that is meaningless. You do not stop during a marathon to win a game of darts!
- Firebugs: Some people are busy like a hive. They can multi-task. The challenge is being fickle, not seeing through what has been set into motion to its logical conclusion. Such leaders are firebugs. They have the tendency to light multiple fires, the latest one invariably is priority, and they gather people around that one with scant regard for the status of fires lit previously.
- Coterie Bias: It is human to crave attention. We are all vain. Leaders too. Unfortunately, popularity as a leader is something only an exceptional few achieve. Some understand and learn to live with the fact. There are leaders though who create their personal bubble – surround themselves with people who laud them, right or wrong. Over time their reality alters based on facts/fiction that is fed to them. Often this leads to blatant, unapologetic biased opinions. Sycophancy is not just a terrible trait it is a dangerous one!
- Fall Guy Hunter: This is a trait that should set alarm bells ringing. A leader is accountable. In the real-world things do go wrong, all of us have at some point in our lives taken wrong decisions, made an inadvertent mistake. Yes, errors need correcting, performance needs improving, and the buck must stop somewhere. The leader has the right to reward or reprimand. That said, the onus is also on them to course correct and deliver. Error detection does not absolve the leader of their duties. Covering up is different from covering for. Mistakes are a test of character all round. A leader who throws his team under the bus is not worthy of his position.
The traits listed above are by no means exhaustive. They are nonetheless, traits that are highly visible/tangible.
A good starting point for all of us whether leaders or leadership aspirants or plain simple contributing units of a professional (even social) structure.
Humare Ram (हमारे राम)
Painting Credit & Courtesy: Sukhpal Grewal श्री राम कहो, रामचंद्र कहो कोई भजे सियाराम है कोई कहे पुरुषोत्तम उनको मानो तो स्वयं नारायण है कुछ तो बात होगी ही न उनमें की राम भावना युगों से प्रचलित है सहस्रों हैं वर्णन उनके, सैंकड़ो हैं गाथाएँ जो राम हैं हमारे वह तो हर कण में रमित हैं आज सज रहा शहर मोहल्ला सजी सजी हर गली भी है लहरा रही हनुमान पताका श्री राम लहर जो चली है जलेंगे आज दीप घर घर में पौष में मन रही दिवाली है प्रस्थापित होंगे राम लल्ला अवध में हर मन प्रफुल्लित और आभारी है पुनः निर्मित हो रहा है जो केवल मंदिर नहीं स्वाभिमान है यह किसी धर्म संप्रदाय की विजय नहीं धरोहर हैं हम जिसकी उस सभ्यता का उत्थान है हो सम्मान जहाँ हर नर का सम्मानित जहाँ हर नारी है प्रेरित हो जो राम राज्य से उस भारत की रचना ज़िम्मेदारी है राम आस्था राम विश्वास राम जीवन की सीख हैं राम रामत्व रम्य रमणीय राम इस संस्कृति के प्रतीक हैं कोई कहे पुरुषोत्तम उनको मानो तो स्वयं नारायण है श्री राम कहो, रामचंद्र कहो कोई भजे सियाराम है
Brand New Resolutions MMXXIV
I know, I know. Resolutions are passé. Nonetheless, I had to vent these thoughts that had been bubbling in my mind for the past few days and what better a way than to write a blog post. Since it was that time of the year I just decided to go ahead and put them in the form of an ancient ABVS tradition.
Without much further ado, let us jump right into my proposed Resolutions for Brands in 2024.
START | Re-imagining Products (&Solutions)
Enough and more has been written, discussed, and debated about how consumer and customer behaviour has seen a paradigm shift post-pandemic. That said, how many brands have re-thought or re-designed or re-organized their offering on account of this change? Not many one would reckon.
All of us acknowledge that it is a more connected world than it was pre-COVID19. Not because the technology was not available but because the adoption of technology had not happened. The pause in commerce in the 2 years of lockdowns has accelerated adoption journeys and tech roadmaps.
Therefore, in an IoT led world with AI making headlines and some real headway, dumb products without connectivity and with little or no user interaction are setting themselves up for failure if not extinction. Brands and more specifically Product Managers need to look hard at the JOB TO BE DONE and introduce some level of intelligence and interactivity in their offerings. The trap to avoid though is it being a lip-service or a gimmick.
STOP | Green-washing
Consumers today are more discerning. Only the brands GENUINELY integrating SUSTAINABLE in their narrative shall be able to or shall we say allowed to reap the rewards. Overtly simple methods of the last century such as using adjectives such as “Natural”, “Organic”, “Traditional” in communication will not work. It’s not just the offering but also the value proposition that needs to be sustained (sustainable).
Yes, there is a consumer who is willing to pay a premium for sustainably produced/sourced/managed products and solutions but that does not mean brands have a birthright to a higher price-point.
All brands sooner or later will need to spell out their vision and sustainability goals. Whether from a compliance perspective or from a consumer preference perspective or a market valuation perspective, brands shall be compelled to share their sustainability dashboards.
MORE OF | Data-driven Marketing
The downside of the social era has been that brands have started to confuse conversations with/ feedback from consumers with primary research, analysis, and culling insight. All marketers do understand that the Voice of Consumer is the starting point not the point itself. It is imperative that brands plan for and ensure that a strong understanding of the consumer/user continues to be the basis for creating products or solving problems.
Any understanding of the market that is built on data, reports and research is paramount and should take precedence over anecdotal evidence.
Research aside, consumer immersion is hygiene and brands should mandate this for their team. Every minute spent observing consumers in their setting is invaluable.
Many of my past colleagues at Nokia have (at that point in time very grudgingly) spent tens if not hundreds of hours in consumer visits. The repository of consumer understanding that the exercises built is something that I am sure all of us bank on till date – it is become the part that has honed our marketing intuition.
LESS OF | Follower Mindset
This is a pet-peeve. Also a sign of a lazy marketing organization. If something has worked for Brand A it is not necessary for Brand B to respond with a “Me Too”. Caution here is not to confuse this with being a fast-follower which isa well-accepted strategic approach.
A follower mindset is by definition reactive. Marketing teams that craft quick communication or value propositions based on market feedback beware. The battle for counter-share and shelf-share shall always force sales teams to demand an equivalent for a competitor’s new launch or variant. It is incumbent on the Marketers in the organisation to alter value for the consumers.
So be it a extra-lathering shaving cream or extra-whitening soap with dirt busters, the response cannot and should not be bigger, better, faster, more alone.
Points mentioned in the START and MORE OF if adopted should help brands come up with better ideas.
Here’s wishing all fellow marketers a great 2024!
Building Brands Intelligently in an Era of Artificial Intelligence
What is a brand? What does it take to build one? Who builds the brand – the marketing team, the product or service by virtue of its delivery of promise? Assuming one can be built is it possible for it to transform?
Questions that would make the best of marketers and gurus pause to reflect and collect their thoughts before they ventured an opinion.
Yes, you read that right! An opinion!! Likely a studied or considered one but opinion, nonetheless. Now, the author doesn’t claim to be an expert marketer either but sure is a passionate one. The very same passion that has brought the author to publish a post on ABVS after a long, very long time!
Most brands have a multi-layered existence that operates in a 3-dimensional space with the so-called 4th dimension being time. These layers tend to thicken over a period of existence during which every brand evolves, becoming more certain, contextual, and relevant.
Let’s understand the layers first.
The Brand Construct - The innermost part (but naturally) is the Core of the brand. The core, as the word is defined in the dictionary, is the part that is central to the existence of the brand. The core of a brand is not unlike the calling that we humans oft struggle to find.
The questions that need answers are what am I about? What do I stand for?
The brand like all of us may well spend its lifetime trying to answer these questions. Also, much like us humans the brand also contends or grapples with these questions after having been in existence for a while. Very rarely, almost never is a brand born ready with answers to these questions. Greater understanding of this shall emerge when we look at the 3 dimensions of a brand’s existence.
- The next layer is the brand’s Essence. This is the layer that defines the playground for the brand or articulates the stage that the brand performs on.
The core and the essence of the brand often are to be articulated for and understood more by those who build it. The outcomes of doing so manifest in the layers that surround.
- The third layer is the one where the brand starts becoming more lifelike as its starts defining its own principles and standards of behaviour. Values give a window to and answer what drives or motivates a brand.
- Persona is the fourth layer of the brand. This is the layer that starts giving the brand a voice; answering the questions what do I say and how do I say it?
- Legacy is the outermost layer, the one that is all about the impact. What stays behind after you figured out your calling, performed on the stage, demonstrated what drives you and said what you wanted to the way you wanted say it.
Individually all the above are just words but collectively, they make an entity. One that is felt, seen, has a personality, stands for something and yes, gets talked about – a BRAND!
Before we move on to the dimensions of a brand’s existence it would be prudent to understand what we talked about with the help of an example.
The author mulled many different ones before settling upon BMW.
In sync with the times yours truly resorted to ChatGPT to “Describe BMW as a brand” (refer screenshot).
The answer that ChatGPT put forth is what this author shall use to build his theory of brand construct.
Sidenote: At this point, it makes sense to reiterate that the purpose of this article/post is to evoke/stimulate thought hence agreements and disagreements, mild or vehement are welcome. Please do leave your thoughts in the comments.
The CORE of brand BMW is “engineering”. When you start with an aircraft engine and then move to motorcycles and automobiles innovation is a given and therefore the ESSENCE of the brand. The VALUES of brand BMW are described by their “focus on driving performance”. BMWs ready association with “sophistication and cutting-edge technology” are indicative of its PERSONA. Finally, the brands “commitment to delivering a distinctive and exhilarating driving experience” is bound to be its LEGACY.
Overtly simple in retrospect? Not really, it has taken over a 100yrs of the brand being in existence for it to have the ability to be summarized so succinctly.
Which brings us to the dimensions of that hopefully, courtesy all that we have talked about explain themselves on their own.
Nonetheless, the 3-dimensional space that all brands operate in are as follows:
- Feeling
- Thinking and
- Social
Time speaks for itself as the 4th dimension.
Now the FEELING dimension is all about how a brand makes one feel. It is the tangible, experiential aspect of the brand. Continuing the BMW example. “Sheer driving pleasure”
The THINKING dimension delves into the evocative and subliminal aspects of the brand viz “innovative” and finally the SOCIAL dimension is projective and provocative – “sophistication/luxury/premium”.
All of which need TIME to build, consolidate and get entrenched into the psyche of the audience.
Summing up, a brand is so much more than a name that we choose.
A brand is the sum total of the experience that it delivers, the problems it helps solve, the job it gets done, the way it makes “me” feel, the way “you” see me, and the way the “world” shall remember the brand, you and me for having created and consumed it.
All of that, through its 5 layers and 3-dimensions!
जो कह न सका
कहने को तो बहुत कुछ है लेकिन आज भी कहा नहीं जाता ऐसा होता तो है मगर होता क्यों है के दिल में आया ख़याल अंजाम नहीं पाता काश के कह दिया होता जो कहना था फिर वक़्त पे मैं ये इल्ज़ाम न लगाता आपकी इज़्ज़त करना जिसे सोचा था उस एहतिराम को बीच का फ़ासला न बनाता अब उम्मीद यही करता हूँ हर बार ये के सुन ही लेते थे आप जो मैं ज़ुबान पे न लाता यक़ीनन पहुँच रहा होगा मेरा दर्द भी ये वरना इतना मुझ से अकेले सँभाला नहीं जाता बस गयें हैं आप शायद अब कहीं मुझ में ही आप से जुदा चेहरा मेरा आईना नहीं बतलाता हर रोज़ रूबरू होता हूँ मैं यूँ अब आप से इसीलिए मैं इस बात का शोध नहीं मनाता कहने को तो बहुत कुछ है लेकिन आज भी कहा नहीं जाता
A Beautiful Friendship
Wonder if things would've changed Or would they have remained the same Would we have grown into wise old men by now Or remained boys taking things as they came Life would have kept us together I'd reckon Circumstances no doubt would've made our journeys part It would have remained a beautiful friendship If only a premature end did'nt beckon Had life not made other plans You'd have turned 50 today Imagine all that we'd have done The boys in us would've had their way So in your memory we shall pour out one Sing songs all night from an infinite playlist Do things the only way we would have done Have one more and one more till morning come
Shunya (शून्य)
शून्य से जन्मा हूँ मैं और शून्य में मिल जाऊँगा इस मेल के अंतराल में जीवन काल मैं बिताऊँगा अल्प है किंतु ये पूर्ण ये विराम नहीं आज के गगन का अस्त सूर्य ये हुआ नहीं मात्र कुछ शब्द कह वाणी ये न थम पाएगी पंक्तियाँ इस वाक्य की महाकाव्य ही रच जायेंगी स्वयं है लिखि जा रही हस्त की ये रेखा नहीं सीख ली है हर उस बाण से जिसने लक्ष्य भेदा नहीं कर्म मैं अपना करूँ आगे बढ़ता जाऊँगा भाग्य की धरती से मैं फल नहीं उपजाऊँगा पाया जो पितृ-तात् से दंभ उसका किंचित् भी नहीं आशंका मात्र इतनी है वृद्धि उसमें कर पाऊँ कि नहीं नयनों को विश्वास है स्वप्न सच हो जाएँगे कष्ट करने वालों को कृष्ण मिल ही जाएँगे पथ पे चल पड़ा हूँ जिस आपदा का अब भय नहीं न मिले या मिलतीं रहें उपलब्धियाँ मेरा अस्तित्व नहीं शून्य हूँ मैं और शून्य में मिल जाऊँगा अंत की अग्नि में जल कल राख़ मैं बन जाऊँगा
The Average Guy
I am your average guy The kind that hold the door for you Instead of getting ahead on the sly I am your average guy The type you call your friend Not the hottie who you wanna try I am your average guy The one who sticks around Never leaves you hanging dry I am your average guy Whose word you can rely on Not someone who’s default is a lie I am your average guy Happy always to lose to you Not hide behind if, but and why I am your average guy Your very last first kiss The love you just couldn’t deny Yes I am just an average guy
The Wiseman’s Lament
Fear not the fools For they have no pretence Fear the questions they ask For they may expose your ignorance Beware of the ignorant though They certainly are a dangerous lot Stubborn enough to keep facts at bay Smart enough to connive and plot Wisdom alone isn’t enough for the wise The wise must put it to opportune use For the fool doesn’t care much for knowledge The ignorant love status quo, tis change they refuse The fools have no concept of it The ignorant don’t find wasting it a crime Quest for knowledge is a burden for the wise Wisdom isn’t attained overnight, it accrues over time The world is fair and uniformly unkind to all No matter you are the fool, ignorant or wise The wise in their knowledge of it suffer more After all, “Ignorance is bliss in fool’s paradise”
The Mind Shapers
A tribute to all the potters Who shape the human mind To those who see each piece of clay And believe that it is one of a kind Their knowledge like deft fingers Shaping and moulding the clay Expertly spinning the wheel Fast at times, at times slowing play Carefully grinding and dusting Allowing the contours to appear Baking and glazing every single one To make them last many a year So here’s an expression of gratitude Towards all those wonderful artisans The teachers who have crafted us all Into becoming our best possible versions
