Leadership is an act of supporting and guiding individuals or a group of people to achieve a specific goal with the help of motivation, dedication, and direction. To emphasize more on the term of leadership, we can compare ‘Boss’ with the ‘Leader’ to help you understand better.
A Boss oversees an organization or a group of people. He is the one who gives the order to his employees in a dominating manner. He tends them to do the work and if they failed, he becomes harsh on them in terms of tone and his behaviour. In contrast, the leader is someone who leads his people firmly, whether the situation is good or bad. Whenever someone needs help, a leader helps him and motivates other co-workers to help in the same manner.
If the leadership is not done correctly, then it may be converted into disastrous diseases which need to identify and cured timely.
Gary Hamel, an American Management expert stated in a piece that was published in Harvard Business Review in April 2015, explained briefly the 15 Diseases of Leadership presented by Pope Francis. Hamel stated that leadership is all about the constant hard work to improve and grow further for the progress of the organization. This is a mission by which every leader must go through, but in between the way to the mission, there are some diseases we have exposed in this blog that can dangerously weaken the effectiveness of any organization.
Superiority Complex:
This disease is very terrible if not cured promptly and not fulfilling the need for leadership and can affect your organization and people. Self-check is important to see where you are lacking and in which areas you need improvement. A leadership team that is not self-critical, and which does not keep up with things may end up becoming unfit, having a sick body, needs to be nurtured suitably. It is a disease of those who turned into lots or think that they are at higher places or have mastered at the services. This disease will not let you see any other face, especially of those who are weaker and those who need you the most.
The best treatment for this disease is humility, to have a belief in saying that ‘I am open for constructive criticism, and I am a servant, and what I do is my duty.’
Excessive Busyness:
This disease is found in those individuals who indulge themselves in workload and neglect the fact to rest a while. If not do so, it leads to stress, inactivity, and lack of motivation. To take rest is a right for those individuals who have completed their task, and it should be taken seriously. The best way to treat this disease is to take off leaves and spend time with family and take those holidays as moments of recharging.
Poor coordination:
Leadership is all about working as a team. If any of the members say no to the work, then it would be affecting the work of the whole team. As said, once leaders lose a sense of community among themselves, the body loses its functioning, and then it becomes an orchestra and makes noises that are not bearable. The same is the case with the members of the team, if they do not work together and lose the spirit of teamwork, they will lose as a team. We can take the example of a body that works here as a leader and all the body parts works as a team. So, if an arm says to the leg, that ‘I don’t need you’ or the head says to the hand that ‘I am in charge, I will do whatever I want’, it will lose its power as a team and can create discomfort and coordination.
Leadership Alzheimer’s disease:
This disease consists in losing the memory of those who nurtured, mentored, and supported us in our journeys. This disease can be seen in those who have lost their memory of their success with the great leaders who inspired them motivated them and helped them in making their passion a reality. We can cure this disease by remembering the efforts of those individuals whenever we raise one step higher to become successful.
The disease of rivalry and pride:
When our success, good performances, and titles become the primary object of life, we then forget the fundamental duty as leaders which says, ‘Do nothing from selfishness but in humility, it counts others better than ourselves.’ So, to fight this disease, leaders must not only look at their interests but also the interests of others.
Indifference to others:
This disease occurs when the leader only thinks about himself/ herself, losing the sincerity of genuine human relationships. This can happen in many ways: When the most knowledgeable person does not put that knowledge at the services of less knowledgeable colleagues. It also occurs when you learn something and then keep it to yourself rather than sharing it helpfully with others. The best way to defeat this disease is to share the knowledge that you have so that others can get benefit from it. It also helps them in encouraging others in their learning process.
The above-defined diseases are a danger for every organization and its leader, and they can affect the growth and prosperity of an individual and the community. It is better to cure these diseases at the earliest or else it would cost you the highest in your way of progress.
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