When Leaders are Left to the Dogs!

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership (Colin Powell).

The Loss

My very first car was a 1967 VW Beetle. Its most unique feature was the missing floor pan on the passenger's side. Anyone lucky enough to ride in this German-engineered masterpiece sat on the rear bench seat. If they became bored, they could literally watch the road fly by underneath them. Should they begin to perspire, a well-timed pass through a puddle cooled them off quickly! With no A/C for those hot Mississippi summers, a fuel tank mounted in front of the driver, and sketchy brakes, this rattling deathtrap carried me on many a college adventure across the state. And then, one fateful day, I let someone borrow the Bug. He returned the favor by rolling it on a gravel road, and my mighty Beetle Bug was no more. I had to write it off as a complete loss.

The Written-off Leader

To write something off is to consider it either a loss or simply of no value. The phrase began in the 1700s as an accounting phrase. Accountants might remove an outstanding payment from the books by marking it as a "loss." An asset might be written off because it lost value and became worthless. As the phrase evolved, it applied to people. To write someone off is to dismiss that person as insignificant, worthless, or a failure. Egregious when any human being is written off, the leader who has been written off by the team is in a particularly dangerous situation. Simply put, that leader's team wouldn't save him from a pack of rabid dogs. Why? Because that leader has proven herself to be a failure to the team. To paraphrase General Colin Powell, the team writes a leader off because they have determined that the leader can't or won't help them.

Signs You've Been Written-off

I have worked for or around many who their teams have written off. There are at least seven signs of the written-off leader:

🚩 The team does not bring problems, issues, or needs to the leader;

🚩 The team is not willing to advise the leader. The team will not disagree, caution, help, suggest, or care if the leader drives off the metaphorical bridge (sometimes even if the team is in the car!);

🚩 The team is unwilling to do more than what is required. They give the minimum effort needed to complete the task/mission/job;

🚩 The team bonds together for safety, efficiency, and support, but the bond is centered around the trauma of working for a toxic leader;

🚩 The team celebrates when the boss is away. In fact, the team is praying for the leader to be away often, and they don't particularly care what the reason is!

🚩 The written-off leader kills off the positive energy of an organization. He is like the plague--to be avoided at all costs;

🚩 The written-off leader is excluded from conversations and inside jokes. She is acknowledged in the workplace, but not included in the team space.

Conclusion

'Tis a tragedy to be written-off ... to be considered a failed or worthless leader. The Apostle Peter in the Christian Scriptures writes that growing in faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love (2 Peter 1:5-8) keeps the Christian from being written off; I can only imagine the successful secular leader does much of the same.

Reflect

1. Have you ever been written off as a leader? Why or why not?

2. Would you add to or subtract from the seven signs of a written-off leader?

3. What's your story of working for a written-off leader?