Leadership Of An Ineffective Leader

In my experience I have worked with many people in leadership positions that have been good leaders, leaders that have made an impact on me and have inspired me by their examples. But with the good leadership there were also a few that were ineffective as leaders. Under their direction I also learned how I would be able to improve myself as a follower and a leader. I will be assessing the leadership of an ineffective leader and how it impacted my philosophy of leadership in general.

For the purpose of this paper I have changed the name of the organization and the director’s name in the leadership position. I will refer to the organization as “Lucy Incorporated” and the director will be referred to as “Mr. Flowers”.

Mr. Flowers, the Director of Purchasing, was selected from a pool of internal and external candidates. He was an external candidate. And, while having the qualifications, skills and background necessary for this position, this was his first role as a director. The position consisted of a division of ten employees, I was one of those ten employees. The department is comprised of a collaboration of services provided to support the goals and objectives of the company. The operation included centralized purchasing and contract management; capital projects, funding priorities; and moving services.

“Leaders may be able to create a common focus among their followers through the intensity of their own passion to advance the quest” (Wallis, Joe and Dollery, Brian p.256). For the first month Mr. Flowers projected a positive, self-confidant, charismatic, engaged leader. He seemed to be vested in his employees and team input. He wanted to learn the processes and procedures before implementing any change, but after being ...

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...rs. He was not concerned about getting “buy-in” from the team. Because he was not empowering his staff, he was not creating leaders nor followers.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Mr. Flowers was ineffective in his leadership based upon his inability to communicate effectively; his goals were shapeless, unstructured and immeasurable; micromanaging and losing sight of his vision. Mr. Flowers’ although he was unsuccessful in his capacity I learned how to identify true leaders and I will draw on this experience to strengthen and develop my professional abilities. “But success cannot be about having skills (strategic, operating etc.) or personal qualities (drive, inspirational, openness etc.) a leader can check off all the lists and still not succeed, since skills and personal qualities may be necessary but not sufficient conditions of success.” (Likierman, Anderew 2009 p.46)