Becoming a Healthy Leader: The First Step to a Healthy Culture
It is no surprise that leaders influence cultures. This is true for healthy leaders, and it is also true for unhealthy leaders.
Healthy leaders know what it is like to be on the other side of them. They are aware of their strengths as well as their weaknesses. They are aware of their default reactions, and they are also aware of the influence they have on organizational culture. They are intentionally making choices to calibrate themselves based on their self-awareness. Healthy leaders are respected. They influence others greatly, and people follow them because they are healthy leaders.
On the other hand, unhealthy leaders are rarely aware of how they are perceived. Unhealthy leaders are surprised by the complaints or dissatisfactions brought to their attention by the people they lead. Unhealthy leaders are clueless about the damage they cause to their team and are defensive when things do not go their way. They feel like the world has turned against them. They are self-conscious and threatened, and they go into self-preservation mode.
You probably experienced more unhealthy leaders than healthy leaders in your life because, sadly, there is more unhealthy leader than healthy ones. You experience them at your work, in your church, or even in your home. There are leaders everywhere. There are leaders in your company, leaders in your church, and parents who are leaders of their children. I bet you can list a lot more unhealthy leaders than healthy ones.
You are probably unaware that while naming unhealthy leaders in your circles, someone probably identified you as an unhealthy leader.
If you are an unhealthy leader, you are probably getting defensive right now.
Do they understand how much work I do?
Do they know how much effort I put into this company / church / home?
They are just jealous of my achievements.
I have no idea where they are getting those ideas. They have a bad memory. They need to get their facts straight.
You get the point.
When you are unaware of your health or unhealthiness, you create an unhealthy culture in the places you lead. When leaders lack self-awareness, arrogance follows. If you aren’t aware of your weaknesses, then you are blinded by your strength. It is so easy to create a culture where you overpower others because you don’t think you have any weaknesses. You will have compliance, but you will not have respect. If the people you lead have choices, they are more likely to leave than continue to follow you. What could also happen is the leaders encountered upsetting situations, felt bad for themselves, and everyone cuddled the leaders until they recovered.
When you are an unhealthy leader,
The people around you have to tip-toe around your boss in case you get mad or upset at them.
the people around you stress over how you will bring potentially upsetting news to you, and they sugarcoat the news for you.
You probably learned this behavior from your environment, and you might not even be aware of how you are coming off to others. You may have unintentionally perpetuated an unhealthy culture because you are unhealthy.
But you can turn this around.
Acknowledging you are unhealthy is a crucial step towards becoming a healthy leader. Knowing you are unhealthy can help you seek ways to be healthy. It can motivate you to seek out resources, people, or even your network to find people who can help you to become a healthy leader that people want to follow.
