Why wasting people's time is leadership malpractice

On her Harvard Business Review blog, Susan Cramm argues that the only kind of leadership malpractice is wasting the lives of those being led.

“Every leader makes errors in judgment that steal precious moments from the lives of others,” she says. Some examples of these are:

* Sponsoring a project that isn’t ready: Careers can be derailed and change cynics, rather than change agents, can be created by “asking a talented leader to go where no man has gone before, only to die in the process”.

* Overloading the star performer: Overachievers, despite making things look easy, often don’t know their own limits and the temptation is to "keep throwing balls in their direction" but you won’t get feedback until people start complaining when the balls begin to fall.

* Negative labelling: People tend to live up, or down, to the label that’s given them and negativity or low expectation can become self-fulfilling prophecies.

* Managing jobs instead of careers: Cramm insists that leaders are responsible for helping people manage their careers by "challenging them to articulate longer-range objectives and formulate plans to close the gap".

* Failure to address performance issues: If someone is struggling then it’s a sign something is wrong and it’s a leader’s duty to find out what it is. For instance, do they want to do the job, do they have the time and do they know how to do it?

Cramm concludes: "In the stress of the day-to-day, it's relatively easy to commit leadership malpractice. Leaders carry a heavy burden and, in many organisations, the short-term rules over the long-term and the ends justify the means.

"However difficult, leaders have an ethical responsibility to get the work done in a way that enriches the organisation and the people within it."

Are You Committing Leadership Malpractice?
Susan Cramm, Harvard Business Review, 20/01/10