Causes of Leadership Failure

• Procrastination - Waiting for the right moment. Any progressive person will tell you that the right moment will never come if you wait for it. Visionary leaders know that right moments are created by starting somewhere and working to create such moments. Ineffective leaders, are reluctant to take action and wait for the right moment; only to realize that such a moment has already passed. This not only result in missed opportunities, it frustrates followers and hold back progress.


• Lack of defined purpose in life - If you were to go around and ask people what their defined purpose in life is, you will be surprised by how many are actually just going with the flow, the purpose... just waiting for whatever that comes their way. No one can lead anybody this way.


• Lack of persistence - As the old saying goes "success comes at a price", yet many people including those in leadership position are eager to give in too so after a temporary setback. The opposite is also just as fatal, Effective leaders know when to down the tools on one plan and move on to the next, ineffective leaders will pursue a plan at all cost even when there is zero chance of succeeding. It all boils down to adequate education and good judgment (which lacks in most ineffective leaders).




• Pulling the rank - Everybody knows that anyone who goes to great lengths of telling people he/she is the boss, exhibits a level of insecurity. Effective leaders would never pull the rank, they instead show it by the way they do things (inspiring or inducing others to produce better results than they would otherwise do on their own).


• Negative personality - Everybody knows the effect of negativity, nobody wants to follow a leader with a negative mentality. Effective leaders know that people do well when they are motivated and not when they are let down by a leader who emphasizes their shortcomings.


• Expecting to get paid for what they know instead of what they do with the knowledge - The fact that you have an MBA or PhD does not necessarily guarantee or entitle you to being paid for the knowledge (Don’t get me wrong, I have an MBA myself, but it means nothing until I use it productively). You get paid for using the knowledge to produce expected results or at least to induce others to perform better.


There are many other traits that cause leadership failure that are not covered in this posting. Some of which are as a result of natural or external factors that we do not have control over such as ill-health and mental disability. However, most causes of leadership failure are things that can be avoided by seeking adequate education on certain areas.