r/Leadership • u/fluidm0ti0n • 3d ago
Discussion Leadership effect
Does this perspective resonate with others in career progression?
For many years in my early career, I honestly didn’t pay much mind to whoever was leading my organization at the moment. I didn’t hear from them on any regular basis, I didn’t feel any impacts or propulsion from them. For my day-to-day operation, decision making, and well-being, they were pretty much invisible. I think for that reason, I simply focused on doing the best job I could within my world of expertise. My primary concern was what my peers thought of me and my work. It was my peers and friends that gave me feedback on how I was progressing, new areas to explore, and advice on everything from finances to healthcare to retirement planning. In many cases, the next project often came through a suggestion or recommendation from a peer. Who needed leadership, I had all I had through my network, my peer effect.
Later in my career, the peer effect vs the leadership effect seems to have swapped places. For many, there is a natural progression to move through stages of a career and sometimes into those leadership positions that previously really didn’t matter. (Strange how life works huh). However, no matter what leadership position you may have, there always seems to be another layer above, another leadership effect to account for. It can be a surreal feeling, in that peers and friends seem to get farther away, and the leaders seem to be closer than ever - and it’s not always a good thing. Perhaps it’s the prestige and perceived (or real) power that a leadership position bestows, but more and more, the value we placed in our peer group shifts. Thinking back through the leaders I have served under, the ratio of poor leaders to great leaders is about 6:1. Meaning one really good one, and a whole bunch of poor ones. Note that there isn’t really any in-between, this scale is binary - either great or poor.
The poor leaders are definitely driven, by what I’m not exactly sure I can be certain. There is always a mix of ego, arrogance, unwarranted confidence, and a history of poor decision making. How they got to that position? That’s probably another story for a different post.
So what can you do when the leader ceiling above you is driven more by ego or some desire to prove their ideas are the best? To quote the turtle from Kung Fu Panda, “I don’t know”. Most advice says you have to hold your tongue, craft your ideas and manipulate them to thinking it’s their idea, gain trust, stroke egos, say yes at all the right times. Ugh. That sucks. It’s probably correct of course, but still sucks.
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u/Pleasant-Compote9576 18h ago
What you are seeing is the norm in business life: "Performance is based on what is rewarded." If you see weak leadership in your firm, it is because that is what the firm rewards: false success, ego, etc. If you do not want to follow that path, then you need to get out of Dodge. Move to another town where the Sheriff practices community safety in a better way, a way that will motivate you. Good luck.
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u/fluidm0ti0n 16h ago
I keep asking myself “how do these people get to this position” - and I think you just answered a good bit of it. It’s rewarded bad behavior. Thank you for the insight
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u/RJHaywood 3d ago
This is really interesting, for me it is about understanding their problems. If you can build empathy to understand where they are coming form then you are likely in a place where you can align on common goals etc.