Why Leaders Fail

The Financial Times recently featured a report published by PCL, a business psychology consultancy, entitled “A decade of the dark side”, which contained a study of 18,000 psychometric tests completed by senior managers during the past 10 years. By their account, the outputs of the report differ from other tests in that they provide an analysis of why leaders fail, rather than just providing a neutral account of individuals’ strengths and weaknesses.

A key finding, which PCL believe can "actually derail leaders, and destroy the loyalty and commitment of colleagues" was this

leaders may rely on the strengths that have served them well in the past. But you can have too much of a good thing. A useful strength can become a damagingly extreme form of behaviour. So a careful leader becomes too cautious, an imaginative leader turns eccentric and a charming leader becomes manipulative.

This finding reflects a key element of FranklinCovey's thinking, which warns of the 'role of ego' in a similar way to the PCL report. In our context 'ego' is an instinctive human quality, which causes us to focus on our needs, rather than those of others, and which, since prehistoric times, has helped us make the decision of 'fight, flight or freeze' when we perceive we are in danger.

As you can see from the slide above, we highlight the same potential for ego to translate what are otherwise strengths onto damaging weaknesses. To help people to manage their ego, we work with them on a process of self awareness and the ability to create a gap between a given stimulus and their response.

If organisations cannot prevent prospective strengths being 'mutated' to weakness, the FT summarises the consequence well

Great strengths, unchecked, can do us down. But without strong and forceful leaders, businesses and organisations will fail. Get the balance wrong and you are in trouble.