Carole James’ Leadership Dilemma
Shawnee Love •
December 7, 2010
Picture a battlefield with skirmishes, cannons, and hand to hand combat between two opposing armies. The general of one army is suddenly shot off his horse. No matter whether by “friendly fire” or otherwise, the leader of the opposing army typically seizes the opportunity and commands his army to overrun the now leaderless foe and win the day.
Not in the political battlefield in BC. Instead, the NDP army seized the opportunity to mutiny on their leader. History tells us this isn’t a great strategy to win a battle let alone a war, but being pro-business, I am not complaining.
In the face of her mutiny, Ms. James had three options:
- Fire the deserters.
- Bring them back onside.
- Step aside.
Each option had personal, professional and organizational pros and cons for Ms. James and the NDP. While political leadership is different from business leadership, political parties and businesses both have goals they are working towards and leaders charged with seeing their organizations there.
No matter how great of a leader you are, some people will always disagree with your style, ideas, and initiatives, and it is up to you as leader to figure out the right way to strengthen your team and continue to move forward to achieve your vision.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
As a business leader, you can prevent the level of organizational toxicity evident in the NDP’s example by:
- Hiring people who complement and/or can work well with your style,
- Ensuring everyone on your team shares your vision,
- Creating a safe place for discussion and disagreement on how to achieve the vision, while keeping the following sacred:
- The discussion and disagreements are confidential and kept within the “safe place”,
- The leader is the final decision maker,
- Once the decision is made, everyone supports it and does their best to make it happen.
- Setting up a feedback loop to report on progress and revisit/recalibrate the plan in light of new information regularly (again #3 applies).
Finally, as a business leader, be thankful you get to choose who is a member of your organization.
