This post is part two of 5 Reasons Manufacturers Have a Poor Leadership Team. In part one we focused on reasons that are reflective of the leader’s work ethic. This week we share reasons that are reflective of the hiring manager’s perception of the leader’s character.

Here are the remaining reasons:

3. Loyalty – We often have co-workers with whom we have shared challenging experiences; which inevitably creates a bond. As a result of that bond, we unconsciously develop a positive bias towards our co-workers. This is understandable, if you see someone display positive character traits you will develop trust, respect, and admiration for them. However, we must never develop a level of bias that blinds us from the reality of their capabilities. We can trust someone’s character, but we must not lose sight of their competence in performing the duties of a leadership role.

4. Relationship – There are times that leaders are promoted because of their internal relationships within the company. The organization should have a system that is rid of outside influences. The leader with the right skills and character should be selected, as opposed to someone merely due to their internal ties to the organization.

5. Availability – When the need to fill a role arises, and we have the burden of everyday business, we sometimes succumb to the path of least resistance. This means we end up selecting a candidate that is readily accessible to us. Leaders often feel they do not have the time to dedicate to an extensive search; in other cases, leaders just do not have the support or even the awareness of what the ideal candidate might look like. Instead, they are rushed or become content with just filling the role and delegating the responsibilities that are overwhelming them.

Every time a hiring manager promotes a leader for one of these reasons they are potentially fostering poor leadership.

The reality is that many employees accept being promoted because they feel obligated to accept. In other cases, it is because they want certain things that come with the role such as compensation, perks, status, etc., but those reasons are not sustainable and over time these individuals more often than not will either fail or lose interest. When you promote someone to a leadership position, you, as their leader, have a duty to set them up for success; otherwise, you are displaying poor leadership. When selecting a candidate for a leadership role, a critical role that influences a team, leaders should promote employees for the right reasons and strive to find a candidate that fits the company because of their character and the role because of their competency.

Here is a quote to ponder:

“The better you are at surrounding yourself with people with high potential, the greater your chance for success” – John Maxwell