Has Leadership Development Accidently created Unobtainable Expectations of our Leaders?

I have a theory.

Is it me or has the level of expectation of leaders gotten slightly out of control?

Leadership Development has become a huge thing in the last few years. There are a ton of available options for leaders. Training courses, books, online resources, communities,  internal L&D initiatives, executive coaches and more!

But somehow it still looks like, If you are a leader these days, you are expected to carry out all the regular daily tasks and on top of this, wake up at 5am,  meditate, journal, exercise, take the dog for a walk, get the kids to school, then show up at work like Buddha's assistant with a 100% handle on everything that's happening and ready to empower and enlighten everyone else. 

Yet, don't even think about opening your mouth, giving an opinion, or making a decision, as lord forbid everyone starts whispering that you are the HIPPO* that's messing everything up. 

*Highest Paid Persons Opinion

And when things are going wrong, you are the bottle neck. All issues have to come through the leader, and they are quite literally spent. Wondering if you need to read another leadership book, change your exec coach, take another course and oh hang on, you forgot to feed the kids, the cat has gone missing and now AI has crept up on you and and you have started counting how many years to go before you can retire. 

Here's my hypothesis part 1 of 2- 

Leadership Development has ballooned slightly out of control. 

Meaning, with the best of intentions, the Leadership Development rhetoric has actually made our expectations of leaders  “messiah-like” and unobtainable. 

Let's back track a bit. 

Before the word “leadership” got famous, those people were called managers.  There was a command and control, hierarchy system and it went out of fashion because it just didn't work anymore. 

Modern Leadership, in all its different forms, became the way to go. And this needed some effort. 

So the world reacted to that gap which was great and very much needed BUT has the pendulum swung a little too far? 

Here’s my hypothesis part 2 of 2 - 

Whilst some  leadership development is very much a necessity, providing this help only to the managers will get things so far. 

It's true that the leader, manager, boss, has another level of accountability in an organization, but expecting them to carry the full weight of the team's needs, dynamics, systems is just unfair and unrealistic. 

In my opinion, the people being managed also need to be developed to get the high performance results that organisations are looking for. 

I am talking about team development where people learn how to be a better team member and understand how to function as a self-managing team where possible, regardless if that team is made up of individual contributors, senior directors or the C suite. 

Am I biased? Probably, yes, because I have worked with teams and their well meaning managers for years and I have always said and stood by this one fundamental principle. 

Team issues need to be solved at the team level. 

Meaning, with everyone in the room at the same time. 

Taking the leader out into a "sterilised" training or coaching programme will work some of the way, but it may not get the high performance team results that I have seen are possible. 

Equally, taking team members out into a "sterilised" feedback and communication training might work some of the way but it still wont get the high performance results that I have seen. 

What I believe and what I have witnessed is that the most effective way to get a team and their manager to high performance, delivering as a cohesive unit,  is working with them all, in situ on all their issues and goals. 

That is where the real work happens. That is where conflict is solved, where hidden dynamics are expressed and where the ability to become a self managing team is learned. 

Let me summarise… 

My hypothesis is that the world of leadership vs management came to solve a problem and it  has gotten slightly out of hand and has misled our opinions of what leadership really is, leading to unattainable buddha-like expectations of people just because they are a line manager. 

To re balance the system we need more “teamship development” and the best, most effective way to do this, from my own personal experience,  is in situ with all the team, including their leader based on my fundamental principle of: 

Team issues need to be solved at the team level. 

Meaning, with everyone in the room at the same time. 

I am genuinely curious to know what you think and from which part of the “system” your perspective has arisen. Get in touch!