JLBC Self-serving leadership
Leaders must guard against their self-importance and recognize that leadership is about serving others, not themselves. All leaders need considerable self-confidence, ambition, and some amount of narcissism to strive for leadership positions. Too much leader narcissism can damage subordinates and, over time, the organization. Overly narcissistic or self-serving leaders tend to personalize their organization's vision, pursue results for their benefit and are contemptuous towards those who disagree with them. The behavior of self-serving leaders is not necessarily bold or loud but can be very subtle.
Self-serving leaders are very good at image management and tend to surround themselves with subordinates who readily agree with their decisions. They use stereotypes to describe other groups and ingratiate themselves with their followers by appealing to the group's uniqueness. They can influence others by emotional appeals rather than rational arguments. They are, therefore, more likely to engender envy, greed, hate, and conflict rather than altruism, harmony, and cooperation. Tribal cultures with firmly held but exclusive norms that appeal to racism and appeals to elitism all point to self-serving leadership.
It is also possible to produce lists of leadership traits that are, at best, counterproductive and, at worst destructive. Abuse of power, overly authoritarian behavior, lack of appropriate or necessary consultation before making decisions, and conduct not in line with JLBC values would be high on such a list. Bad leadership has important implications, now and in the future, for its impact on people and their willingness to stay and perform in the JLBC.
Chief of JLBC Command
Defense condemns self-serving leadership but supports values-based leadership where the leader's values reflect social responsibility and benefit the greater good. Leadership is about serving others and the organization.
Aggressive task focus
At times, leaders must drive their subordinates hard to achieve tasks. This drive may be to meet an urgent contractual deadline or to satisfy an essential political imperative. The actions of a leader with a continuous and unrelenting drive to achieve can be counterproductive over the long term. Such individuals can be effective at getting tasks completed but can often hurt people in the process. Impressive short-term results are achieved but with a legacy of long-term damage to the individuals involved—usually, a gift passed on to the next leader to rectify.
For many years, leader behavior has been viewed along two independent variables: task focus (or structure orientation) and people direction (or consideration orientation).
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