{"id":457,"date":"2012-06-04T18:45:37","date_gmt":"2012-06-04T18:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/?p=457"},"modified":"2012-06-04T18:45:37","modified_gmt":"2012-06-04T18:45:37","slug":"what-did-you-learn-from-the-worst-leader-you-ever-followed-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/?p=457","title":{"rendered":"What Did You Learn From the Worst Leader You Ever Followed?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At one time or another, many of us have had that rare opportunity to follow a leader who personified the definition of leadership; someone who we would follow to the ends of the earth and beyond.\u00a0 That individual had some trait, some characteristic, that sparked your passions and devotion to a cause and you were willing to do whatever it took to further the cause.\u00a0 It’s easy to learn from leaders or this sort.\u00a0 We recognize what they did that inspired us and resolve to do the same things to inspire others.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, each of us has also had that all too common experience of being lead by someone who did it all wrong; who failed to inspire; who, as one person put it, “couldn’t lead a bunch of kids into a candy store”.\u00a0 It’s easy to adopt the initial reaction of “I don’t want to learn any of this person’s leadership skills”.\u00a0 But, let’s think about that reaction for a moment and see if a different perspective helps us learn something positive.<\/p>\n

What was it about the poor leader that “turned off” our willingness to follow?\u00a0 Can we learn from this experience to determine behaviors that we don’t want to display when leading others?\u00a0 To illustrate, let me give an example of two leaders I’ve had in my life at different times. To protect their privacy, I’ll simply refer to them as “Leader #1” and Leader #2.<\/p>\n

Leader #1, when you asked if he would talk with you about something, would immediately set aside what he was working on, literally clearing his desk so that he could give you his undivided attention.\u00a0 He’d instruct the receptionist to hold his calls.\u00a0 While his door might still be open, anyone coming to that door would be waved away; a gesture understood by everyone in the office to mean “this person and I are talking; please don’t interrupt”.\u00a0 Leader #1 spent time with you until you<\/em> indicated that the conversation could be ended.<\/p>\n

Leader #2, on the other hand, would invite you into his office when you asked for time; usher you to his conference table; and, take his cell phone from his pocket and sit it on the table where he could look at it simply by glancing down.\u00a0 When his cell phone rang, he’d think nothing of answering it while you were talking.\u00a0 If he received a text message, he’d read it and frequently respond to it while you were talking.\u00a0 If the receptionist announced a call, he would often walk over to his desk and pick up his telephone to take the call … while<\/em> you were talking.<\/p>\n

Which leader made you feel important?\u00a0 Which leader demonstrated that he was there to help you?\u00a0 Which leader would you rather follow?<\/p>\n

The answer to that third and last question tells you what kind of leader you want to be.\u00a0 While Leader #2 was a poor leader, he taught you something about how to lead by showing you how not<\/em> to lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At one time or another, many of us have had that rare opportunity to follow a leader who personified the definition of leadership; someone who we would follow to the ends of the earth and beyond.\u00a0 That individual had some trait, some characteristic, that sparked your passions and devotion to a cause and you were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55,56,52,1,57],"tags":[59,60,89,17],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dynamic-leadership","category-lead-from-strength","category-leadership","category-uncategorized","category-what-characterizes-good-leaders","tag-dynamic-leadership-2","tag-lead-from-strength-2","tag-leadership","tag-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleoneresources.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}