Last week at a tranquil suburb hotel in Pune, I was addressing a group of professionals on incubating culture of Organization Building and sharply accentuating on the decisive role of a CEO. The focus was on “Why many large enterprises are impressively effective at managing growth and functional complexities, but actually quite compromised at building a process driven decision making future organisation”.

Abruptly, one back-bencher agitatedly delivered a long monologue (I scantily remember few lines even now), “Sir, who should be accountable first… Everyday internal and external demands are multiplying… What to do when leaders make pitiable decisions, estrange worthy people, pamper sycophants, and close their eyes to noticeable opportunities and development plans…Why leaders do not learn from failures…Why there are cracks between how such leaders see themselves and how others see them.…?”

While listening to his expressive eruption, although my gaze was fixed outside through frame on the horizon at murky haze of rain spread, a sketchy image of this blog emerged in my mind at that very moment…

The (Un) qualified Leader!

It is not same as the Accidental Leader. Of late, many writers have penned articles/books on Accidental Leaders.

(I know…you all have recently experienced the controversial buzz over the Sanjay Baru’s book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh’).

An Accidental Leader is a leaders who is not prepared or groomed for the new demanding role. A position of unexpected responsibility heaved upon him without any prior knowledge. He unpredictably becomes a leader. He lacks the requisite leadership experience to justify the role obligations. Moreover, it leads to an overpowering feeling of uncertainty and failure because of the position density, prominence, and enormous expectations of stakeholders. In my view, many companies make this reprehensible blunder by promoting an individual ad libitum, up in corporate ladder, predominantly based on his current accomplishments. But leadership is not about being “what you are good at”. Such promotees are like a ‘poor-fit’ in the system. In many extensive studies on people engagement, it is found that employees from wide range of industries often grumble about “compromised leadership” at top as an influential factor. Most of the times, such accidental positioning is also the result of inadvertent and unforeseen circumstances in the organization. Accidental leaders are victims of “No Choice concession” of immediate staffing, like, unexpected retreat of an incumbent, reorganization, change of management, new business opportunities, M&A, and many more.

Nevertheless, they have some sincerity towards the organizational purpose. They may take little more time to justify the role and the accountability that comes with it, but few out of them ultimately do a commendable job. There are many distinguished examples of Accidental Leaders who have achieved unmatched success.

I am sure you all have experienced such situations even in your day to day life. It is not easy to overcome an unpredicted challenge. But with right mental attitude there is a possibility to outshine the expectations. You need to have vision, perseverance, and quality of courage to make it comes true.

We also encounter this pattern regularly in our corporate surroundings, particularly in family owned businesses. Globally, family owned businesses have influenced the significant part of the economy. Majority of companies in India are family firms and have also adopted to a competitive corporate culture very successfully. First, let’s appreciate the fact that different aptitude and capabilities are required to catapult a business opportunity from a start-up to a booming enterprise. Perhaps, many entrepreneurs now leading major establishments did not set out on a leadership path. Their dream was never to be a MD or CEO of a large conglomerate. They started their business in a very humble way and continued to hold the leadership role even when their business grown to a significant size. They were hands-on. They learned while doing. It’s quite common in family run companies.

Entrepreneurs are extremely competent to turn a venture into a winning proposition. They are also excellently sharp at seizing opportunities and sniffing revenue yielding alternatives. But not necessarily admirable in leading the enterprise. Yet, a number of entrepreneurial companies have a very myopic view on leadership succession. They continue to pass-on baton from generation to generation, at times, even without readiness. The dynasty rule prevails. In certain cases, inheritors are apparently ill-equipped to lead a multifaceted complex business dynamics.  When that happens, the company flounders. An unprepared successor, with intimidating responsibility and glamour of the position at too young an age, can take along more impairment than good.

On many platforms I have strongly voiced my opinion that there is a real difference between entrepreneurs who start companies and the leaders who grow corporations. Doing a revenue generating business and building an organization are two very different things.

In this blog, my focus is on Unqualified Leaders and not on Accidental Leaders or entrepreneurs. You will find abundance of unqualified leaders in so called professional organizations.

Occasionally when I look at some of these corporate CEOs, I wonder, “Do they have what it takes to lead a business commendably?”

Unqualified Leaders are an altogether a different class…Machiavellian, shallow, and phoney. In fact, they work very hard to shrewdly manoeuvring entire corporate system to hit the bull’s eye. But, people at large, do sense something is “seriously illogical” or “misplaced”. Your mind grapples with violently diverged feelings and dogmas. It becomes difficult to reconcile with the deeply-held respect for that role. They are completely unfinished for the role. They seem to be underprovided for honouring the formidable role obligations. In reality, the splendour of the position of a CEO is completely plagued and eclipsed by such professionals. You keep on conjecturing how they could stretched to such a pivotal position in corporate hierarchy?

Like every organization is being evaluated on its mission, vision, and values beyond just the words on its Website. Often unqualified leaders don’t realize that they are also constantly being appraised by their employees, customers and vendors on their character.

 A Leader with Borrowed Vision and Short Sighted Tactical Slant

They don’t know where to begin, what they want to accomplish, and what they must do to succeed. They do not have originality of vision and are miserably short in fundamentals required to watch over the delivery of superior performance that is sustainable. They certainly suffer from vision-handicap. Therefore, their focus is tactical, short term, and encourage conformity to tried and tested conventional practices. Such leaders are woefully unequipped to define clear goals, set priorities, and inspire people. As a result the organization evidently suffers strategic direction.   Apex management team remains oblivious to what is happening at grass root level operations. Ever changing goal posts, reserved communication at all levels, compromised quality focus, event recalcitrance, and botched projects, further add to gloom. Unqualified Leaders fail to create an atmosphere where people are encouraged and respected to give their best. Their totalitarian thinking exhibits in ways that pull down the entire organization to destiny.

A Leader with Overflowing Narcissistic Tendencies

Unqualified leaders are thoughtlessly self-centric. They unaffectedly believe that entire organization and business exist because of them. They have an unapologetic sense of entitlement. Such leaders are oppressively irrational and insensitive to others views or requirements. They are essentially driven by envy and hence thwart even a normal channel of communication between functionally dependent people. They have serious fascination for titles, facilities, honours and prestige but do not want to take the pain that comes with the position. They have serious overestimation of self-worth. They want to be ceremoniously adored. They love to behave like a ‘provider’. They have such an incredibly inflated egos that most of the serious professionals usually find them too irritable to handle.

A Leader who is Driven by Cronies

They are mostly surrounded by flatterers as their thinking partners. They create an inner-circle of people who pander to their commands. Their attention-seeking diplomacies are targeted to get others to join their agenda. They feel hostile being told that they have made a bad decision. Truth hurts them. If you do not contribute to their vicious agenda they ensure that you are immediately disqualified as a core team member. They continue to remain in their world of deception and intensely dislike people who speak out their minds. On the other hand, even selfish cronies have hidden agenda to accomplish their own objectives. Such toadies have no hesitation in praising every decision of the leader. They love deceiving the leader with ornamental language that makes him feel euphoric. In fact, insulating a megalomaniac leader from harsh realities ensures rich dividends to them.

A Leader who is Suspicious and Insecure

Sigmund Freud recognized that Narcissists are emotionally thick-headed and highly suspicious. They are extremely attached to their hard manipulated monarchy and are scared of any competition in the system. They negotiate with entire system to eradicate potential second line top professionals to avoid any unforeseen threat to their chair. Any alleged threat to their fragile ego can activate outrage in them. They are driven by rewards, status, and power. Generally averse to tackle the hard issues and disinclined to put themselves on the line of fire because of the threat of getting exposed.

I believe, an unqualified leader poses a real threat to the organisation. So, what should a Board be doing to ensure organization is not nurturing an unqualified leader? They not only need to act, but act fast. The role of the Board of Directors is to provide a strategic oversight and direction to the CEO and apex management team. Very often, the obligations of the Board have been a serious and provocative point of deliberations. A Board is legally liable for the decision and conduct of the operating management. Board of directors are equally answerable to the shareholders and the regulators. They can’t afford to be a mute spectator to the giant fall. For a large company, a vulnerable and dysfunctional Board can be lethal. The global business scenario is moving very fast to stomach CEOs and the Boards who do not evolve for the future.

What is desirable is to have the real inspiring CEO who innovates, proactively focuses on future, stands to the occasion, challenges actions that are unfertile, seeks direction from support system, engages with people, makes those decisions that might be disliked but are essential for the success, and confronts the bumpy issues head on.

Such leaders make a real difference in building a predictable enterprise.

It is chancy not to evolve for tomorrow…

I would be interested in hearing from you about the
(un)qualified leader you’ve experienced…awaiting your feedback.