UNCORRECTEDPROOF

What leadership competencies do you overuse or ineffectively use? How will you work to resolve this pattern of behavior?

Self-Deceptors

Self-deceptors are the internal forces that can deceive leaders and steer them toward a false narrative, particularly in times of uncertainty, change, or stress. We have identified sixteen deceptors that we find have the most impact on leaders. This does not mean that there aren’t other things that deceive you and create false roadmaps. The ones listed next may jog your awareness of others that act as deceptors to you and your leadership. We want leaders to evaluate each one through two lenses: how often they impact you, and how intensely they impact you and your leadership.

EGO: Makes us more likely to operate in isolation instead of working collaboratively and leaning on others to achieve the best solution. The pride and arrogance that come with ego can increase our odds of exerting excessive control, which impedes our ability to lead with vulnerability.

SMARTEST IN THE ROOM: As leaders, we may feel like others expect us to be right all the time. In response, operating under the guise of “smartest person in the room” syndrome and relying on the need to be right makes us less willing to accept novel ideas and draw on the expertise of team members. We stop listening and become trapped in our own siloed patterns of thinking.

FITTING THE MOLD: When we feel like leadership needs to look a certain way, or when we don’t see ourselves as fitting the leadership mold or a leader image we think we need to live up to, we stop leading from an authentic place and tend to feel like outsiders.

IMPOSTER SYNDROME: Feelings of self-doubt can override our ability to make important decisions and act with confidence in leadership positions. When we don’t feel up to the challenge due to false notions about our own abilities, we often take the backseat and even sabotage our own success instead of stepping up.

SCARCITY: The feeling of never having enough, whether it be time, resources, confidence, or the like, can influence our ability to act and make effective leadership decisions. Scarcity takes us away from issues that require our attention or opportunities that we just don’t have the bandwidth for, allowing us to walk away without putting up enough of a fight for things we want and need.

PERFECTIONISM: When everything seems not good enough and we’re characterized by a fear of failure that makes every decision feel impossible. Perfectionism causes us to hold onto things too tightly in an effort to keep it all together, we can’t let go of control, and strain compulsively and unceasingly toward unattainable goals.

AMBIGUITY: When we are captive to ambiguity, we exercise control through being vague, not giving the full picture so we retain control, not giving clear direction, or sharing limited or different information with different parties so you’re the only one in control of the full picture or story.

CONFLICT AVOIDANCE: We see conflict as something that will resolve itself. We don’t feel the need to lead effectively by intervening. Instead, we defer to everyone else to resolve the issues, agreeing to let things roll over and providing no clear direction. This creates consensus overload.

BUSY BARRIER: While a leader’s time is always in demand, sometimes we hide behind “busyness” to avoid the “people” side of our role. We become inaccessible and unavailable to rationalize it away because we tell ourselves “we’re the boss” and are dealing with things we deem to be more important.

BLAME GAME: When something goes wrong, it’s someone else’s fault. We tend to immediately scapegoat others, rather than taking responsibility for our role or being solution oriented.

SITUATIONALLY UNAWARE: At times, we may be so absorbed in our own thoughts that we are not tuned into what’s really going on. Examples include saying what you want to say; being unable to read the room; preferring to listen to yourself speak; and oversharing or being inappropriate