"Across almost 50 years in business, I’ve learned to spot a strong leader from a weak one," writes Richard Branson, the British billionaire and owner of the Virgin brand, on his blog.
According to him, one of the key indicators of weak leadership is the effort to avoid conflicts and confrontations. Even though he himself does not like confrontations, he considers the ability to solve them in timely fashion a key prerequisite of good leadership. No leader should be afraid of situations that may end up as disagreements.
I'm (not) a leader
Leaders, according to Branson, most often avoid confrontations because they do not want to make employees feel uncomfortable. Often they are also concerned about their own ability to understand the problem well enough to stand up for their opinion. The weakest leaders only wait for problems to solve themselves.
Another related manifestation of weak leadership is when a leader always has someone else for the "dirty work". Such leaders do not want to risk damaging their reputation and so they present their own shortcomings as an ability to delegate. In reality, however, they merely rid themselves of responsibility for the problem while not giving anyone else a chance to solve it. They are only ready to blame someone else.
"This kind of leader is skilled at relegating blame, they are usually very good at holding their people accountable – everyone, that is, except for themselves," Branson concludes.
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