The 1 reason you should not complain as a leader
The 1 reason you should not complain as a leader
For as long as a leader keeps complaining about his people, she or he will never get much done. First, complaining exhausts people around you and sooner or later you find yourself alone and isolated. Did you also know that complaining is a form of manipulation? It puts pressure on the people around you to a point where they want to help resolve all the issues on your behalf because they somehow forget those are your issues to deal with.
When I meet a leader that is constantly complaining I worry that they have not understood the people they are leading and consequently they have not internalized the idea of diversity and individual uniqueness.
Your team is everything and you will have come up with the best vision and have grand dreams and fail to execute. Recently I encountered a situation where a very talented employee was having issues completing full projects, well that is what was required at the time. But here is the thing; as a leader you have three choices, either get stuck at complaining, watch where his or her strengths are and re-assign them to a role that they can execute better or let them go.
As a leader get to know your people, be realistic and very candid with yourself about everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and please stop focusing on the weaknesses; we are all weak at something anyway. Instead focus on aligning their strengths and the roles you allocate them to do. Let us complain less and do more work getting to know the people we lead.
#leadershipredefined
My name is Primera Muthoni and I enjoy designing products and services. On most days you will find me supporting entrepreneurs by helping them navigate and adopt technology to accelerate business growth.
Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.
