There is a trend in leadership across the world, and I see it every week in my travels. It is a toxic trait that can kill morale instantly, massively damage credibility with employees and have a severe negative impact on productivity.
If you don’t do anything about it, this one trait could destroy your company.
What is this one singular trait? It is the one that is the most obvious. The one everyone knows about and sees. Everyone is talking about it behind the scenes.
It is the ugly elephant sitting in the middle of the executive conference room.
Hypocrisy.
The leader who stands in front of a room and talks about the company values of respect and kindness and yet everyone knows that same executive screams at employees in meetings and calls them names as part of their tirade.
Their yelling and screaming are laced with profanity and insults. They define the word jerk.
The leader who makes managers and supervisors go to training on employee motivation and appreciation, and yet they never show appreciation to their team. They will not attend any training except to introduce the program and then leave the room.
They are after all, much too busy to attend a training program.
The leader who appears in a company video, smiling and talking warmly about how “every employee’s contribution matters” but many people know that this executive will walk into a room and not even talk to “little people.”
They are the most arrogant person in the company.
The leader who writes in the annual report about the importance of team spirit, and states that it drives the success of the entire organization, but it is a well-known fact, that this leader has many teams fighting with each other in the organization.
This story is repeated all over the country. When I am facilitating a leadership program, there is always one person who asks: “Excuse me, I may be out of line – but here is my question; how come the people that should be in this class aren’t here?”
When I ask who they mean, they immediately say “our senior leaders.”
How do we solve this problem?
1. Behavior matters.
The board members of companies have to insist, no demand, that executive leaders have actions that align with the company values. If there is an issue, executives should be held accountable, and get training or executive coaching to correct their inappropriate behavior.
When leaders still don’t behave, after these steps have been taken, they should be fired. I wrote about this last month when Uber took action with leaders who were not acting appropriately.
The company should be applauded for doing so, but should also question why such terrible behavior was allowed to continue for so long.
2. Leaders should be role models.
Companies have to make sure that executive leaders are modeling the behaviors that they expect from employees. Their behavior has to be professional and beyond reproach.
They shouldn’t be those leaders who say “don’t do as I do- do as I say.” That is a huge disconnect with people. If leaders don’t “walk the talk”, then employees think ” I don’t know why I should do this. Our executives don’t ever do that!”
3. Create connection.
Executive leaders need to create as many opportunities as possible to connect with all employees and meet and talk with them. Events like town halls, lunch with the CEO (with a small group of 12 people), sitting in on various meetings, and touring different locations can be very effective.
Leaders need to continually look for ways to communicate to teams about the company mission vision and values.
4. Have one class of employees.
Some companies have the “employee class” of people and the “executive class” of people. It is not said directly, but it is painfully obvious that executives get treated differently. There is one set of rules for employees and a different set of rules for executives.
This destroys trust and morale and is very hypocritical.
As actor Misha Collins once said, “I actually think that the most efficacious way of making a difference is to lead by example, and doing random acts of kindness is setting a very good example of how to behave in the world.”
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.