compromises

Do You Have an Absentee Leader on Your Team? — Image Credit: Shutterstock

Absentee leadership is rarely discussed, but it is perhaps the most destructive of all poor leadership types. It can do more to compromise employee engagement, morale, and productivity than other faulty leadership styles.

Unfortunately, it is also the most difficult of the styles to detect, which means you may have one on your team right now.

How can you detect whether you have this element in the executive circle? And what can you do about it?

Also called an emotionally disengaged leader, an Absentee leads in title only. They are people who are perhaps promoted into management because they did great work in their previous position, and they enjoy the perks and rewards of their current elevated status. However, they do not put in the hard work of engaging with their team to provide direction and support. You might say that they deplete the organization’s value because they are taking from it, but not investing back into it.

This affects the teams and individuals in their area of responsibility in a much more insidious way because absentee leadership behaviors can cause confusion in roles, conflict between staff, and increased stress leading to work and health problems.

Symptoms that you have an Absentee on your team can include:

End runs for answers.

Do you have employees from a specific area within the organization that continue to come to you for answers? Ask yourself why. Allowing or even supporting this disempowers their leader and crowds your calendar. If you have not encouraged this dynamic, it may be that these employees are not getting answers from the person who should be supporting them. Don’t fall into the trap of giving a quick and easy response to these queries; instead, make time to sit with the leader who should be supplying answers and share what you are noticing. The goal of this exercise is not to punish the employees, but to explore why they are not getting answers. Deep dive on this one.

Increased conflict or interpersonal problems.

Do you have employees or an area within the organization that cyclically erupts? This is a reflection of unmanaged emotions and a lack of ability to negotiate relationships. If this is a trend, it is a reflection of someone allowing this to continue. I would call this an Absentee leader, since the leader is either aware of the situation but steps back from confronting, or they are unaware, which is worse. Again, this requires a conversation and some coaching around expectations. You’ll need to stick closely to the Absentee during a corrective period to monitor their progress. Absentees can disappear easily in the company crowd. They are generally nice people who don’t make noise, which allows them to hide behind other more evident company challenges.

Team grumbling or low performance.

When conducting employee forums or interdepartmental meetings, do you notice that dissatisfaction is expressed from the same corners every time? Is there a team that is known for its compromised performance? A chronic poor attitude or behavior in either individuals or team is a clear sign that someone is not present for their team, providing coaching, corrective feedback, and upholding expectations. Again, your approach would be the same – to sit with your Absentee and outline what you are observing, how it is impacting others and the company, and to define clearly what you want to see. Monitor, monitor, monitor.

This topic is worth careful study if you want highest ROI from your executive team.

The impact of absentee leadership on job satisfaction outlasts the impact of both constructive and overtly destructive forms of leadership. This costs your company not only now, but in future, since best efforts to turn this around take time.

And at a time when your focus needs to be on leading the organization into the future, you can’t afford to compromise.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Are you over-committed and feeling behind the Eight Ball? Even though it’s stressful, why you do this may shock you. In fact, you may also be getting some secret gratification from it!

The problem is, your professional (and personal!) reputation is suffering because of it. Your credibility is low, and you are missing out on bigger, better professional opportunities.

Ready to make a change?

Let’s take a look at why you may be over-promising and under-delivering.

Which of these scenarios fits you?

1. You want to look good.

If this is you, you may be worried that you are not seen as competitive, or that you aren’t pulling your weight. If so, it’s time to have a conversation with the decision-makers that are allocating your workload, to see how they feel you are doing, and what you might do more or less of, in order to be at your most effective.

2. You are eager to please.

If this is you, you may need to look like a good person. Signs are that you are volunteering to help others with their work when it compromises your ability to accomplish yours, or that you accept work allocated to you that isn’t really your area. If you see yourself here, it’s time to examine whether or not you are seeking to be liked, rather than to be respected.

3. You want to feel like you are accomplishing more.

If this is you, it may be that you have unrealistic expectations of yourself, or you receive your sense of self-worth from achieving. Bad news. This will never stop. You will never reach the point when you feel you are doing “enough.” Time to shift how you receive your self-worth. Not sure what you bring to the table, or need additional confidence, credibility, and currency? See my Leadership DNA program and get on the list.

4. You really don’t want to do what you promised.

This is the hidden deal – you may be suffering from Self-Completion Theory – completing your identity by engaging in activities that reinforce this. And often, people get gratification from simply promising to help others without follow through simply because they already got what they came for – the feeling that they are a good person. Is this you? Time to examine your self-image and the criteria you use to define it.

5. You haven’t confronted the time and energy it actually requires to complete the project.

Okay, face it. If this is you, you keep trying the same way of estimating the time it takes, and you keep coming up short. The problem is, others know it, too. You come up with excuses. You dodge offices and conversations, until you can provide something that you know is sub-par – all because you either under-estimated your own time, or the availability of others to deliver on their part of the project you need to complete. Get realistic. Add 10% more time than you would normally estimate, and test this. Need 15%? Make the change.

Under-promising and over-delivering is always a good way to build your credibility – and get back on track, if you need to do so.

Where in your work or life are you over-promising?

Patti Cotton helps women executives optimize their effectiveness in leading self, others, and enterprises. Her areas of focus include confidence, leadership style, executive presence, effective communication, and masterful execution. With over 25 years of leadership experience, both stateside and abroad, Patti works with individuals, teams, and organizations across industries, providing executive coaching, women’s leadership development, change, and conflict management. She is also a Fortune 500 speaker. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.