Author: Michael Peiniger

Leadership plays a pivotal role in determining success or failure in a business. A leader’s impact permeates through teams, shaping culture, productivity, and ultimately, the bottom line. Recognising the signs of incompetence in potential leaders before they assume critical roles is a skill every leader and business owner should possess.

As an experienced executive leadership coach, I’ve witnessed firsthand the fallout of poor leadership choices and can guide you through the red flags that should give you pause. It was one of the reasons that I developed our leadership assessment – the Velocity Leadership CheckPoint (VLC) – to assess 25 key behavioural leadership traits, which is used both as a recruitment indicator and a start point for our Executive Leadership Coaching programs.

I have highlighted 19 points (I know – I really wanted 20 or 21!) to consider when recruiting or interviewing for a new leader or manager in your business, and the relevant Velocity Leadership CheckPoint score that could reinforce or back up your questions and instincts.

1. Lack of Self-Awareness:

Incompetent leaders often lack self-awareness. During interviews or assessments, observe how candidates reflect on their past experiences, acknowledge their mistakes, and demonstrate a commitment to personal growth. Leaders who can’t recognise their own shortcomings may struggle to adapt and improve.

VLC Score: Self-Awareness

2. Limited Adaptability:

Leaders who resist change or exhibit a rigid mindset may find it challenging to navigate dynamic challenges. Assess a candidate’s adaptability by discussing instances where they faced unexpected hurdles and the strategies they employed to overcome them.

VLC Score: Adaptability

3. Poor Communication Skills:

Effective communication is the lifeblood of successful leadership. Pay attention to a candidate’s ability to articulate ideas, actively listen, and provide constructive feedback. Leaders who struggle to communicate clearly may sow confusion within their teams, and seek to blame others later.

VLC Score: Active Listening, Verbal Communication

4. Inability to Build Strong Relationships:

Leadership is a relationship-driven endeavour. Leaders who fail to build rapport, trust, and collaboration within their teams may struggle to inspire loyalty and motivation. Probe candidates on their past experiences in team settings and their approach to fostering positive relationships.

5. Resistance to Feedback:

A leader’s journey involves continuous growth, and feedback is an integral part of that process. Beware of candidates who bristle at the idea of receiving constructive criticism or who seem closed off to different perspectives. Effective leaders embrace feedback as a tool for improvement. Also ask for examples of how they given constructive feedback – is it to ‘build up’ or ‘pull down’ a team member?

VLC Score: Constructive Feedback

6. Micromanagement Tendencies:

Micromanagement stifles innovation and demoralises teams. During the recruitment process, assess a candidate’s approach to delegation and empowerment. Leaders who struggle to trust their teams will limit your businesses ability to grow.

VLC Score: Empowerment

7. Inability to Inspire and Motivate:

Great leaders inspire others to achieve their best. Look for candidates who can share stories of motivating their teams, fostering a positive work environment, and celebrating successes. Leaders who lack the ability to inspire may struggle to galvanise their teams toward common goals.

VLC Score: Influence

8. Ego-driven Decision Making:

Leaders who prioritise the greater good of the team and the organisation over their personal ambitions provide greater benefit to your organisation. Be wary of candidates who consistently showcase decisions driven by ego (listen for ‘I’ statements rather than ‘we’ statements) rather than a genuine commitment to the organisation’s success.

VLC Score: Planning, Problem Solving

9. Attitude to Learning:

What is their attitude to leadership coaching and training? In my experience, the worst / incompetent leaders have a narcissistic streak that results in a ‘I already know it all’ attitude, and they are unlikely to accept any form of training for themselves. The best leaders almost always seek further coaching / training to develop their skills.

10. Inconsistent Values Alignment:

A leader’s values should align with those of the organisation. Look for candidates who can articulate their core values and demonstrate how they align with your business mission and purpose. Misalignment in values can lead to cultural clashes and decreased team morale.

11. Overemphasis on Authority:

Leadership isn’t about wielding authority; it’s about influencing and inspiring. Leaders who place too much emphasis on their title or position may struggle to earn the genuine respect and loyalty of their teams.

VLC Score: Responsibility & Accountability (score differential)

12. Neglect of Employee Development:

Competent leaders prioritise the growth and development of their team members. Ask candidates about their experiences in developing and mentoring others. Leaders who neglect this aspect may hinder the overall progression of the organisation.

13. High Turnover in Past Teams:

A history of high turnover within a candidate’s past teams can be a glaring red flag. Investigate the reasons behind team members leaving and discern whether they point to leadership shortcomings.

14. Limited Resilience:

Leadership is often synonymous with resilience. Inquire about a candidate’s experiences in overcoming setbacks and challenges. Leaders who crumble under pressure may not be equipped to steer the ship through turbulent waters.

VLC Score: Resilience, Commitment

15. Inadequate Conflict Resolution Skills:

Conflict is inevitable in any workplace. Leaders who lack the ability to navigate and resolve conflicts may allow issues to fester, leading to a toxic work environment. Where has the leader sought to create an environment for robust conversations? Do they have the ability to diffuse tension or do they seem to create it?

VLC Score: Constructive Feedback

16. Failure to Set Clear Expectations:

Leaders should provide clear guidance and expectations for their teams. Candidates who struggle to articulate how they set expectations and communicate goals may face challenges in leading effectively.

17. Poor Time Management:

Time is a valuable resource, and leaders must manage it wisely. Assess a candidate’s time management skills by exploring how they prioritise tasks, delegate responsibilities, and handle competing demands.

VLC Score: Time Management

18. Lack of Empathy:

Empathy is a cornerstone of effective leadership. Leaders who cannot empathise with their team members may struggle to understand and address the diverse needs of their workforce.

VLC Score: Empathy

19. Inability to Learn from Failures:

Failure is an inevitable part of leadership. Leaders who cannot extract lessons from failures and adapt their approach may repeat the same mistakes, hindering the organisation’s progress.

Avoiding the pitfalls of hiring an incompetent leader requires a keen eye for behavioural cues and a thorough assessment of a candidate’s past experiences. As a leader, manager or small business owner, invest time in probing beyond resumes and skill sets, delving into the nuances of a candidate’s leadership style and mindset. This can be done with planning and consideration of factors such as the list above, delving into what drives you ‘gut feel’, and backing it up with data from a tool like the Velocity Leadership CheckPoint. The future success of your business depends on the quality of its leaders, and your discernment can be a crucial factor in steering it.

Looking to Recruit a New Leader To Your Business?

As highlighted in the article, the Velocity Leadership CheckPoint can provide some crucial indicators of a leaders performance and ability as part of a recruitment process. The Velocity Leadership Checkpoint considers 25 behavioural leadership traits (including the ones listed above in the article), focussed in 5 distinct leadership capabilities: Achievement, Alignment, Awareness, Altitude, and Adaptability. This allows you to gain a clear understanding of your current performance and provides a platform for growth and development.

If you think the Velocity Leadership CheckPoint could be useful for you or business, connect through the Contact Page, follow the link to chat via Calendly or reach me at michael@developingleaders.com.au

True teamwork is so powerful and it is rare – when team members trust each other enough to have robust debates on issues for the business and for their personal development, without letting ego or status get in the way of good debate. Patrick Lencioni discusses this behaviour in depth in his fantastic book, ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’. Does your team have full and frank discussions that generate robust debate and challenge new ideas and thinking?

• The type of conversation that can get heated and stay controlled at the same time?
• Where everyone knows the conversation is to raise things up, not pull each other down?

It is a rare workplace that has it – and if you don’t it can be practised and learnt. Many businesses have teams that don’t have the basic tenets of trust between team members – or leadership team members – so there is very little of the proper, robust conversations that lead to great outcomes.
It is bogged down in ‘artificial harmony’ or petty personal exchanges that avoid the real issues around execution and accountability.

Will your team stay ‘good’, ‘average’, ‘6 out of 10’ for 2024? Or will you challenge them to be 8+? Will your teamwork be thought of as a competitive advantage?

Want to make a difference to your Executive Team for 2024?

Want to make a difference for Executive or Leadership Team performance for 2024? Then undertake Developing Leaders High-Performance Team workshops. The workshops are a challenging series of events to build your teamwork and are not for the faint hearted – and like most things the value is in the work that is completed and the discussions that take place. Avoiding the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team takes effort, particularly from the leader, which is why so many team shy away and continue to under-perform.

Can you change the mind of your leader? Have you ever watched or heard someone, and on the one hand completely, wholeheartedly agree with one point, then violently disagree with the very next point? That is how I felt when watching this Simon Sinek video. Simon has some wonderful insights and thoughts on leadership, and several more in this video, as well as one I disagree with.

When asked: ‘Can you change the mind of your leader?’ he provides two contrasting perspectives – starting with ‘you can’t change their minds’. Then follows with:

‘Be the leader you wish you had’ ✅ and

‘Don’t worry about convincing other people’, ‘You cannot change their point of view’❌

Some thoughts:

‘Be the leader you wish you had’ ✅

I love this point – in the face of poor leadership or leadership that disappoints you, there is no need for it to bring your leadership down to their level. You can maintain standards, support your team the way you would like to be supported, communicate the way you would like to be communicated to – and they will appreciate it all the more. We don’t always work for perfect leaders – often they are doing the best they can with what they have. You may have more experience, more drive, better team skills – you can still share those with your team.

‘Don’t worry about convincing other people’, ‘You cannot change their point of view’ ❌

With this point, I completely disagree. With solid arguments and points of view, with repeated behaviour over time, with explaining your reasoning, you can influence others.

This takes effort – as well as getting over the frustration of feeling like you are ‘teaching’ your boss, or that ‘they should know how to do this because they are my leader’.

Good leaders can convince and change the behaviours of others through their good example, through their excellent communication and through their devotion to their team.

That said – it doesn’t work every time. Some leaders are too focussed on their own path to be changed by others – so convinced they are right they cannot seek an alternative path.

While you can’t change the opinion / view / decision of your leader every time, it is still worth the effort to try for things you deem to be important. I have failed at this, and I have succeeded too – and the successes outweigh the failures and feel much more rewarding – not because it was a win but because of the change that it could make for the leader, the team and the business as a whole.

Our leaders – just like ourselves – are not infallible. They can make mistakes, not be presented with all of the facts, or have thoughts/opinions/details that they are blind to. As a good leader and team member ourselves, I see it as our responsibility to provide senior leaders with all perspectives, as accurately as we can provide, to make informed decisions.

In this sense, I believe:

We can change a leaders point of view by being the leader we wish we had.

Looking to change the point of view of your leader? Or are you looking to be more amenable to other people seeking to share their opinion to change yours? It’s time to consider one of Developing Leaders Leadership Workshops, as well as complete the Velocity Leadership CheckPoint – our signature leadership assessment tool.

‘Spend more time working on the business, and less time working in the business’ they say. If you have been a leader in business for any length of time, you will have been given this advice. The premise is that to be successful, you can’t spend all of your time doing the day to day tasks (that others can do), and spend more time focussing on the things that only you can do, as well as looking beyond day-to-day and into the future.

While this is generally good advice – it needs to be multi-directional. Most people, when told to ‘spend more time on the business’, look outward – to strategy, to team, to customer service, to innovation and new product.
If you truly want to work on the business, the first place – and direction – you need to look at is inwards at your own leadership and behaviours. If you truly want to work on the business and not in it, the first place – and direction – you need to look at is inwards at your own leadership and behaviours.

Why Focus On Your Leadership?

Because as the leader, you have an enormous amount of influence over what gets done, how it gets done and when it gets done. Looking outwards can deal with the symptoms of issues, looking inwards can address the cause.
Like it or not, as the leader, you can often be the cause of a problem, or the bottleneck of one.

What Does This Focus Look Like?

It starts with asking yourself a couple of questions – and it can be harder to answer than you might think.

• Have I fully assumed the responsibility of my role in the last 3 months?
• What have I put off that I could have done sooner?
• Who should I have listened to more in the last 3 months (which would have saved me time and effort)?
• Who should I have listened to less in the last 3 months (which would have saved me time and effort)?
• What task or action have I put off or avoided that has an impact on both me and the business?
• What actions and behaviours can I be responsible for?
• What promises will I make to myself and my team for the next 3 months for those actions and behaviours?
• Who will hold me to account for those actions?

If you want to spend more time working on the business and not in it, looking at how you lead and the impact that you have – on yourself and others – is the first (and most difficult) place to start.

Executive Leadership Coaching Can Help You Focus On Your Business

If you see the need for this kind of reflection but don’t know how to have it (or you know yourself well enough to know you SHOULD but you won’t – these are the types of conversations that an effective Executive Coach or Leadership Coach can have with you. Whether it is working side by side with you, in partnership, cheering you on or giving you a little push, a skilled coach can have you working more on the business, less in the business, and with the right leadership behaviours and skills to match.
#executivecoachmelbourne #leadershipcoachmelbourne #executiveleadershipcoach #developingleaders

Should leaders treat others how they would like to be treated themselves? In the realm of leadership, there are plenty of leadership quotes and adages designed to provide guidance on how you should – and shouldn’t lead others. One of those adages is the belief that you should “treat others how you would like to be treated.” This adage, often referred to as ‘the Golden Rule’, suggests that leaders should interact with their team members based on their own preferences and values.

Honestly, to assume that all people want to be treated like we are treated is both naive and lazy thinking, and naïve and lazy leadership. The only guarantee you get with this idea is that your leadership works for you. In other words, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach fall short of effective leadership.

Great Leaders ‘Treat Others How THEY Want To be Treated’

Instead, leaders should prioritize listening, asking questions, and understanding the individual nature of their team members. To fulfil upon the needs of team members for modern times, perhaps the adage should become ‘treat your staff how THEY would like to be treated’.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should individualise every decision and every thought process in your business to cater to every possible need. But it does mean that you should look beyond your own preferences to create a positive company culture.

What are benefits to treating staff how they would like to be treated?

• Acknowledging Diversity: One of the fundamental reasons leaders should move beyond the Golden Rule is the recognition of diversity in the workplace. People come from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences, and what may be considered respectful or motivating to one person might not resonate with another. We all come with a wealth of experience, beliefs, motives, desires and ambitions – each unique to the individual. By listening and asking questions, leaders can gain insights into the unique perspectives and needs of their team members, creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued.
• Tailored Communication: Effective communication is at the heart of leadership. While treating others as you want to be treated assumes that everyone prefers the same communication style, it often neglects the reality that individuals have different communication preferences. Some may prefer direct and concise interactions, while others might appreciate more detailed explanations or regular check-ins. Leaders who ask questions and learn about their team members can adapt their communication to match individual needs, ensuring that messages are well-received and understood. Yes, that does mean that you may have to brief your team in more than one way and more than one occasion! What is better? Communicating more than once (and more than one way) and having your words ‘stick’, or do it once and have it go over people’s heads?
• Motivation and Recognition: People are motivated by different factors and respond to recognition in different ways. While some people thrive on public praise and acknowledgment, others may prefer private recognition or even constructive criticism. By taking the time to understand each team member’s motivational triggers and preferred methods of recognition, leaders can create a more motivating and empowering work environment. ow do you do this How do you do this in the real world? By simply asking questions. Do you prefer praise in public or private? A celebration or a pat on the back? It doesn’t need to be complicated – the effort and the small tailoring you make because of it makes the difference.
• Building Trust and Rapport: Trust is the foundation of any strong team. Leaders who actively engage with their team members, ask questions, and demonstrate a genuine interest in their well-being can build stronger trust and rapport, and do it more quickly than a blanket approach to communication. When team members feel heard and understood, they are more likely to trust their leaders, collaborate effectively, and remain committed to your – and your businesses – goals.
• The Opportunity to Learn and Grow: While ‘the Golden Rule’ offers a simple approach to communication and leadership, ‘treat others how you want to be treated’ falls short in today’s diverse work environment. Effective leaders recognize the importance of listening, asking questions, and understanding the individual nature of their team members. They also benefit from having other views shared and crucially, have the opportunity to CHANGE their views based on new information.

So, leaders, remember: It’s not just about treating others as you would like to be treated; it’s about treating others as THEY want to be treated. One word – and thought – from you can make all of the difference.

Looking to Transform Your Leaders and Treat others How They Want To Be Treated?

Developing Leaders offers a range of Executive Leadership Coaching, Leadership programs and Leadership and Team workshops that can provide you with the practical communication skills to treat others how THEY want to be treated.

Executive Leadership Coaching review after working with our lead facilitator and Executive Leadership Coach, Michael Peiniger

Executive Leadership Coaching review after working with our lead facilitator and Executive Leadership Coach, Michael Peiniger

Leaders create purpose and values for their teams. What a fun and rewarding experience to work with the team at Pure Fishing to help them create their new 2023 Vision, Purpose and Values! These series of workshops involved a wonderful collaboration between senior managers and team members, with the result being a series of statements and values that capture the ‘perfectly imperfect’ nature of this unique business, as well as capture the heart, soul and competitiveness of this wonderful team.

Like most Purpose and Values statements, the power is in the creation and collaboration as well as the fina words.

Thank you Mitch Birt for the opportunity to work with you and your team again, and a huge thank you to the wonderful bunch of leaders and contributors in Jayson deForrest-Haddleton, Nathan Scanes, Mark Phillips, Mark Stephenson, Shannon Rose, Loryn Chaplin, Jacob Bishop, Eva Martin, Kareena Hardie, Kayden Dhyon.
It was a pleasure to work and learn with you all – you have produced something really special!
#opportunity #thankyou #collaboration #leaders #developingleaders #purposeandvalues

Developing Leaders – Purpose & Values Workshops

The Purpose and Values workshops are a unique leadership and development offering offering clarity to leadership teams and businesses regarding their focus, goals, aspirations and direction. utilising concepts from Simon Sinek’s ‘Start With Why’ and Bill George’s ‘True North‘, the Purpose and Values workshops disparate ideas, preferences and personal values and mould them into a cohesive values framework with associated clear behaviours. An absolute must for any business looking to take their leadership teams, cultures and businesses to the next stage of development.