Leading When My Boss Is Ineffective

Dear Leader,

I trust this meets you in pursuit of wisdom.

One of the biggest challenges for people to accept that leadership is not just for people with titles is because they work with bosses who they call themselves “leaders” but they are ineffective.

I’ve had to deal with that in my work-life too.

So the question you may have is how do I follow an ineffective leader or how do lead when the person I report to is not modeling leadership?

When I see such questions, I like to first clarify specifics such as what makes them ineffective in your definition?

In my experience, I will summarise ineffective leaders into 3 categories:

1. Insecure leader: These are people who think everything is about them. A good word to use here is “self-centered”. When someone on the team performs exceptionally well, they fear that the person is outshining them so they want to keep them from rising.
2. Visionless leader: These are leaders who lack vision or fail to provide direction or incentive to move forward. Where there is no vision, people don’t go anywhere forward, even though they exert energy to work and people easily lose passion.
3. Incompetent leader: These sets of people are rare to see, because before you arrive at the top, you should know your stuff. But when people rise by politics, this is evident. They supervise people and are arrogant to learn how it is truly done.

Ineffective leaders may fall into any of these categories or they may not (I’ll like to learn from you about your definition or classification of ineffective leaders).

However, no matter the kind of leader you work with, your job isn’t to fix the leader, it is to add value. If the leader won’t change, then change your attitude or change your Job.

No matter what the circumstance is, our greatest limitation isn’t really the leader above us, it is the spirit within us.

This is how I have worked with leaders. It is to understand that my role as a leader is to add value to the organisation and to the leader above me. The only exception to this rule is when the leaders above me are unethical or criminal.

Let’s bog down into details. What should you do when you lead with an ineffective leader above you?

1. Don’t make the person your enemy, instead work to build the bridge in the relationship. Most times, it is a relationship problem that requires wisdom to bridge the gap. Try to know the individual more closely so as to find common ground to build solid relationships. 
2. Find his or her strength and always think of how their strength is an asset to the organisation. Look for ways to leverage their strength and complement his or her weaknesses. Do what your leaders can’t do so that he or she can do what they do best.
3. Share resources with your leader. I have had to do this several times. When I see a weakness in a leader above me, I make it a duty to find a good book that would help. Sometimes, it is not the book they read that mends the gap, it is the motive. The fact that saying “you just read this book and you thought they might enjoy it too” can go a long way to show how you think about them.

What else have you tried and would like to share with others? Please reply to this mail.

Above all, remember that it is not your job to fix the leader, it is your job to add value.

Keep adding value!

I’m rooting for you,
Great Owete