“Many leaders get to the top of an organisation with skills less associated to leadership, but more the ability to eliminate greater competition on the way and serve their own needs”
👏 Happy Friday!
On this day, September 30th, 1938, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France signed the Munich Agreement, which meant Czechoslovakia surrendered its border regions and defences to Nazi Germany. Hitler had threatened to unleash a European war unless the Sudetenland border area containing an ethnic German majority, was surrendered to Germany. Britain's Neville Chamberlain encouraged Britain and France to appease Adolf Hitler's demands in the hope of preventing World War II. Chamberlain returned to Britain on the same day and delivered his controversial “Peace for our time” speech to crowds in London.
✅ How many times have we seen leaders get to the top of an organisation not because of their leadership skills and will to serve their people, but on their ability to eliminate greater competition on the way. In reality, they negatively impact the organisation and employees. Some leaders serve their own needs.
👉 Unfortunately, this narcissistic and entitled behaviour does not belong exclusively to the führer, Presidents, Senators, Prime Ministers, and general politicians. It also happens in change programmes, and you might be unlucky enough to work with a narcissistic leader.
Narcissists often pursue leadership positions; they tend to be confident with a clear and strong focus on achieving goals. Some of the positive personality traits of a narcissistic leader are that they push for better and bigger things and are willing to take more risks. Their desire is to reach high goals, and they may be able to influence or persuade others to follow their guidance in order to do so. This can lead to improvements in organisational performance but eventually the collateral damage outweighs the benefits. In many cases, short-term evaluations by employees perceive their drive as positive, but the majority of these positive perceptions diminish over time as the toxic characteristics become more obvious. The key three traits we need to see all change leaders’ model are:
Lead with Integrity.
Benevolence.
Change Leadership Capability.
Have a fantastic weekend with the ones you love, enjoy some fresh air, exercise, eat, drink and be happy!
Further Reading: Change Management Leadership – Leadership of Change Volume 4
See: Section 3.2 Model - Execute Phase
Peter consults, speaks, and writes on the Leadership of Change®.
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Peter F Gallagher is a Change Management Global Thought Leader, Guru, Expert, International Speaker, Author and Leadership Alignment Coach.
Listed #1 by leadersHum Top 40 Change Management Gurus You Should Follow in 2022 (Mar 2022).
Ranked #1 Change Management Global Thought Leader: Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Change Management (2022-2021-2020) by Thinkers360.
Ranked #2 Business Strategy Global Thought Leader: Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Change Management (Dec 2020) by Thinkers360.
Ranked #2 Leadership Global Thought Leader: Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Leadership (Aug 2020) by Thinkers360.
Business Book Ranking
Change Management Behaviour - Leadership of Change® Volume 6, listed among the 50 Books from Thinkers360 Thought Leaders to read in 2022.
Change Management Adoption - Leadership of Change® Volume 5, listed among year-to-date’s (Jul 2021) most popular books on business and technology from Thinkers360 member thought leaders.
Change Management Handbook - Leadership of Change® Volume 3, listed among the 50 Business and Technology Books from Thinkers360 Thought Leaders to read in 2021.
Change Management Pocket Guide - Leadership of Change® Volume 2, ranked within the top 50 Business and Technology Books (Jan 2020) from Thinkers360 Thought Leaders.