Leading With A Chip On Your Shoulder
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Word count: 523
Summary: A common characteristic of many leaders is to use anger
in getting people to do things. The author calls it "leading
with a chip on your shoulder", and he shows why such a
leadership trait should be avoided.
Leading With A Chip On Your Shoulder by Brent Filson
A Marine company commander I knew of had a memorable way of
introducing himself to his platoon commanders. He called them
into his office, gave them each a laminated wallet card, then
dismissed them without saying a word.
The wallet card read, "Seven Ways To Get Me Angry."
I don't remember what they were, probably standard leadership
guidelines like, "You make excuses." "You don't come through on
your commitments." "You look out for your career and not the
troops." They were important for the commander; and I guess for
his lieutenants, but they're not important here.
What's important has to do with the leadership style they
communicated. After all, if after all these years, I don't
remember the specific guidelines but the style they evoked,
there must be something to remember in that style.
In truth, the list was much longer than seven. He had a
hair-trigger temper triggered at the slightest provocation. He
was a good leader. His troops accomplished missions. But I
believed, then and now, he could've been be better.
I call the style, "leading with a chip on your shoulder", and I
am sure you've experienced such leaders.
In early American history, people often proved their mettle by
putting chips of wood on their shoulders and challenging others
to knock them off. Today, a person who has "a chip on his
shoulder" is angry at the world and daring people to provoke
him.
It's been my experience that, generally speaking,
chip-on-the-shoulder leaders don't realize their full potential
to get results.
There are two reasons for this:
One, getting great results is a matter of having great
relationships. Great leadership isn't simply about ordering
people to do things, it's about having those people be ardently
committed to doing them. Getting people to be so committed
involves the cultivation of deep, human relationships between
the leader and the people. Great leaders know how to cultivate
those relationships. People who have trouble cultivating good
relationships in their personal life, often have trouble
cultivating productive relationships as a leader.
Clearly, some of the greatest leaders in history -- Winston
Churchill comes to mind -- have had poor relationships with
their colleagues and family. However, it's been my experience
working with thousands of leaders in business, government, and
non-profit organizations that great leaders in these
organizations have, for the most part, developed and maintained
healthy personal relationships. A chip-on-the-shoulder
personality trait is often an impediment to such relationships.
Two, here is the main reason the style is less than
satisfactory. The chip often becomes the issue, not the results.
Marines often focused on their commander's explosive temper, or
on nullifying it, and thus put less focus on the mission at
hand.
Look, being a Marine can be a nasty business. Leaders are not in
the business of being nice to the troops. Leaders are in the
business of having the troops accomplish the mission. That
applies to leader everywhere in all organizations whether they
are in a nasty business or not: They must accomplish the
mission, they must have the people get results.
But often personality quirks get in the way of results. The
seven ways that got him angry were not stepping stones to
accomplishing the mission stumbling blocks.
2005