9/11/2003

Who’s Watching Your Every Move?
By Heather Edelman

As published in September 2003 issue of “Contact”, a publication of New England Women Business Owners.

Who’s watching your every move?  Your employees.  It may sound like an exaggeration but . . .

Leadership is an art and those who have mastered it know at the heart of every great leader is integrity.  We often think of integrity in the lofty sense—full financial disclosure and timely product recalls.  While truth in these situations is essential for credible leadership, every action a leader takes, no matter how seemingly insignificant, influences employees’ judgments about that leader.  After all, integrity is about being honest.  

Let’s not confuse great leaders with successful leaders.  Although great leaders are inevitably successful, the list of successful leaders who failed to achieve greatness is long and the people sometimes infamous.  Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski, and Bernie Ebbers were all “successful” leaders who, in the end, failed their companies, shareholders and employees. 

What kind of leader are you?  Consider the daily opportunities you have to communicate with your employees face-to-face, on the telephone and by email.  Do your words, gestures and actions reinforce your honesty?  For example, leaders like many people hate to deliver bad news.  So they sometimes withhold feedback from employees who are performing poorly.  They mistake this practice for kindness rather than dishonesty.  In fact, most employees want to know how they are doing and how they can improve because they want salary increases and promotions, and because they take pride in their work.  When employees are underperforming, the company suffers, so do other employees.  Coworkers take on additional responsibility to compensate for poor performers, creating resentment and low morale.  Often, customer expectations are not met. 

Another example of leading without integrity is withholding information when financial performance is sub par.  In these circumstances, a leader may fail to communicate for a variety of reasons—personal frustration and embarrassment over their inability to change the tide, or concern about demotivating employees.  A leader’s silence in the face of difficulty can be disastrous.  Information inevitably leaks, rumors circulate and the downward spiral of lost trust, respect and confidence begins.  Negative momentum becomes difficult to control or reverse.  Years of “great” leadership can quickly be destroyed.  Managers are torn between loyalty to the leader or their employees.  Confident in their skills, top employees look for new jobs.  Customers defect to the competition.  

Employees don’t respect a leader who in public praises employees but behind closed doors criticizes them.  Or a leader who espouses diversity but has a homogeneous management team.  Or a leader who declares respect as a core value but never speaks to employees in the hallway. 

I have worked with great leaders who inspired greatness in others and with leaders who fell short.  Through these experiences, I have learned great leadership requires skill and moral courage.  Skills can be acquired if you are motivated and have a good “teacher”.  The courage to be a great leader requires following your moral compass. 

Heather Edelman is president of Strategies For Growth.  She can be reached at (617) 332-2277 or heather@strategiesforgrowth.biz.