The leadership debate

Leaders are often quite consciously aware that in trying to give expression to their personalities, they are attempting to define the identity of their own people. In varying degrees, they try to embody the essential spirit of their personality in their work culture. This little post is to highlight that personality and leadership conflict.

The personality problem of leadership is quite complicated. Leaders who like to deal with power are peculiarly sensitive to the issues of status, pride, and self-respect. Their sense of struggle is bereft of common traits such as kindness, accountability, and empathy. This arises a sense of inadequacy and awareness of weakness which compounds to cause consciousness about the possibilities of failure. This fear leads to a high sensitivity towards any mistake or waver as the leaders’ personality desperately searches for dignified acceptance.

Let me share an example. In the corporate world, primarily the work environment is dictated by the work culture a leader or a manager sets. Whether it be a practice set by a managing director, a team lead, or a manager. During employment, an employee is extended support by the management, however, once that employee has decided to part ways with the company or the management owing to a difference of interest or ideology, the same management behaves disgruntled and tries to make an example of the employee by making his or her life miserable for the remaining tenure. The experience gained from this is carried by the manager(s) to the profiles they are heading towards, resulting in a conflict of ideas with their future colleagues. This is a prime example of a work culture set by a leadership conflict.

These psychological complications tend to complicate the leader’s ability to effectively perform various technical roles or discussions while running a team, or in a sense, a nation. In a team, when a leader fails to institutionalize inevitable conflicts fully, the roles become difficult to establish, resulting in disagreements of competing interests. These differences result from conflicting impersonal interests that the leader failed to address.

What are your thoughts on the personality and leadership conflict?

– boringbug