The Unintended Impact of Your Leadership on Others
- Mar 10
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 11
Here's how I discovered publicly and humiliatingly that I had done a bad leadership job.
As president of a business club I'd doubled the membership over a year and members gave glowing reports of their club experience. I had totally nailed it and I felt pretty smug about delivering on the mandate.
As I stepped down from the stage after showering my deputy (who be taking over as the new president) with gifts and praise I felt very confident I was about to hear all sorts of nice things about me.
No gift, shitty garage flowers, and it was clear she really didn't like me. It was a complete shock. She said about two lines of thanks through gritted teeth and it was awful. As the weeks went on I was ousted, it become untenable to stay and some terrible things were said.
With the benefit of time and reflection I came to see there were a whole bunch of things I had completely failed to do as her leader and the leader of the team. I won't go into them here - the point is I DIDN'T KNOW which is all on me as I didn't stop to ask myself or them (or read this super helpful one-pager!) - and I am not a bad person. If it can happen to me, it can happen to others.
So this one pager is for you to check for yourself and perhaps a colleague you rate who might be having a negative impact they do not intend (but you can see).
Thank you for an extremely brave article Ginny Baillie MCC.
We are all trapped in a toxic socio-economic dynamic. Wise leadership is impossible in many ways whilst we are actively engaged in engineering our own extinction. So be gentle on yourself.