Limitations of Reactive Leadership - A Focus on Driven, Ambition & Autocratic

An Excerpt from Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results, by Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams (Wiley, 2015)The word reactive is to be hasty, kneejerk, imprudent, combative, oversensitive, unthinking, touchy, volatile, or sensitive.Reactive leadership focuses only on the problems occurring in the moment. This management approach makes prioritizing and focusing on the long term more difficult. Instead of allowing daily activities or routines to control your day, you want to be more intentional and do the things that really matter and will produce significant results. Reactive leadership focuses on problems and how to fix them as they surface.In this episode I will focus on reactive leadership focusing on driven, ambition and autocratic.Driven leadership is about the leader working in overdrive. It’s the leader’s tendency to measure their worth and security through hard work. It’s also a leader’s need to perform at a very high level to feel worthwhile as a person. It’s worth noting that good work ethic is a strength of this leadership style provided the leader keeps things in balance and can balance helping others to achieve results and the leader’s own personal achievement.Ambition is about the extent to which the leader has demonstrates a tendency to get ahead and move up in the organization and be better than others. Ambition is a powerful motivator however, when a leader’s ambition causes the leader to be overly self-centered and competitive, they leave casualties on their leadership journey. I know of leaders who allowed ambition to cause them to step on others all in the quest to move ahead at all costs. Be ambitious but have balance!A leader who is autocratic has the tendency to be forceful, aggressive, and controlling. It is the extent to which a leader equates self-worth and security to being powerful, in control, strong, dominant, invulnerable, or on top. The leader’s worth is measured through comparison, having more income, achieving a higher position, being seen as a most/more valuable contributor, gaining credit, or being promoted. As a leader, watch out for the negative effects of being driven, ambitious and autocratic.Have a fantastic week and thank you very much for supporting transformation4change podcast.