Poor leadership is a major problem which continues to afflict the business world, according to Andy Fieldhouse, author of Getting Teamwork Right: The Key to Happy, Successful and Resilient Teams.
Fieldhouse was speaking at the AB Future of Work Forum at the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel in Dubai, as part of a panel discussion on ‘Tech solutions, high performance tactics for connected teams’, alongside Sara Boueri, HR, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA).
He said that during the course of delivering webinars and talks, pre- and post-Covid, the most frequent question he receives is how to deal with a poor leader.
“It’s the first instinctive thing and unfortunately it is happening out there, globally, that there is still a leadership problem I think,” he said.
A previous panel revealed that it costs $250,000 to replace a member of staff, which is calculated through a number of measurable indicators, including lack of performance before the person resigns, added pressure on the team, time taken to fill the position.
Fieldhouse said: “People say, people don’t leave companies they leave leaders, and unfortunately sometimes that is necessary. Turnover is extremely costly but if it’s a revolving door and people are leaving because the leadership is not working, it’s fairly obvious and you can manage and study your turnover rate and see how much it’s costing you to do something about leadership.”
Boueri explained that the process of promotion in companies must also be looked at and, wherever possible, leadership training offered and provided.
She said: “The first thing is self-awareness, if you’re not aware that you’re not doing your job as leader, it’s going to be very difficult for me or for anyone, even your teammates, to prove you wrong or to prove otherwise.
“I think what we tend to see is most people get promoted into leadership positions because they’re technically really good at their jobs. So it’s the natural progression, they take a job in sales, they keep exceeding their sales target so they become sales managers, they keep doing that and they become sales directors, but they’ve never actually learned the leadership qualities that you would need in order to develop a team.”
RAKTDA was recently named the ‘Government Entity with the Happiest Work Environment’ in the emirate by the Sheikh Saqr Program for Government Excellence (SSPGE), rising up from 12th place the previous year.
Sara Boueri, HR, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA)
Boueri said part of that success has come by leaders who are willing to be vulnerable and have the humility to admit that they don’t have all the answers. “As leaders I think we need to let go of this mindset that we need to know more than our teams, we aren’t vulnerable or we can’t be vulnerable, we can’t show a moment of weakness,” she said.
“This image of perfection that a person is really solid, they know how to get the job done, it’s limiting us because it assumes we know everything, but the truth is we know very little.
“I’m not expecting you to know how to do your job perfectly. I’m expecting you to make mistakes, because unless you’re making mistakes you’re not learning.”
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