We often come across certain companies which have been facing numerous challenges despite the market being growing and encouraging. Regardless of having all the facilities and resources in place, the companies have been struggling in several fields of product distribution, communication, workforce management, vendor policies, etc. All these are just the symptoms of the hidden major cause of ineffective leadership. Yes. Ineffective leadership has been attributed as one of the prominent causes for the downfall of good and performing organizations.
Let’s look for Top warning signs of ineffective leadership in the workplace
Leadership is one of the central pillars of the organization which govern the policies, decision-making and functioning of the several departments of the organization. It is a well-known fact that able and dynamic leadership has steered the organizations effectively through the tough and challenging market conditions. However, when the leadership becomes ineffective, the organization loses its sheen and multiple problems arise.
1) Sales Decline
The sales department is one of the crucial departments of the organization as it brings in new orders for the company’s products and services. In the case of ineffective leadership, the sales teams work on their own, without yielding much outcome and also struggling to address the client needs. The organizational leadership which ideally in a regular day-to-day touch monitoring the sales teams, falls silent in controlling the sales teams. Rather than understanding and forming strategies, the ineffective leadership continues to be pushy on sales generation ruthlessly. Sales team mechanically work tiring themselves just completing the days.
2) Internal Quarrels
While working in an organization, there could be difference among the people from various departments. This is a common and natural thing in most of the organizations, which is resolved immediately. In the situation of an ineffective leadership, the differences remain for long leading to confusion, non-cooperation and chaos. This leads to work disruptions and delays in completion causing client dissatisfaction.
3) Office Politics
Egoistic people form their own influential groups for their vested interests. This leads to a decline in the productivity and unnecessary work stoppages. The prevailing miscommunication leads to confusion causing huge losses of material, job orders and opportunities. The ineffective leadership often is unable to identify and handle the problem of office politics.
4) Expenses Surge
Ineffective leadership reflects when the expenses surge considerably as the material pilferage or losses, machine maintenance, order delays, improper job planning, etc factors. The leadership either lacks the depth in identifying the cost factors, or is negligent about certain aspects of the operations.
5) Low Productivity, Higher downtime
The productivity of the resources is not calculated or monitored in ineffective leadership. There are several aspects including improper task allotment-management-distribution. Managers may not be allocating tasks to employees’ skills and competencies, or may not be providing proper role alignment. Work distribution is often done in a biased manner creating a rift between the employees. Employees may not be motivated to perform at their best. Employees may be dealing with personal issues that affect their productivity. Employees may not have the skills they need to be productive.
6) Displeased Vendors
Several vendors and associates are displeased for some reasons like delayed payments, staggered orders, incomplete documentation, inconsistency in orders, ill-treatment of the vendors, etc. Ineffective leadership is least bothered about the vendors and associates who form the supporting backup in the functioning of the organization.
7) Lowering Client Orders
When the clients are dissatisfied by the way they are treated by the sales or customer care teams, leads to clients shifting their order volumes to the competitors. Several clients silently shift their requirements to other competing companies because of the inconsistent communication, impolite behaviour, and lack of involvement of the senior management in the customer care management. Ineffective leadership often leads to decline in client volumes.
8) Chaos and Mismanagement
The lack of coordination between the departments, communication gap between the management and the business department heads; the lack of innovation and initiatives has led to the complete chaos and mismanagement in the organization. Ineffective leadership is unable to control the situation and bring in the vital loop required in coordination of the work smoothly.
9) Unexplained Attrition
In a difficult and tough situation, employees are confused and disturbed because of ineffective leadership. Slowly and steadily good and performing employees leave the jobs for better, rewarding and stable opportunities. The lack of monitoring and coordination forms an unexplained problem of steady attrition for the company leadership which is unable to figure out the main causes. Employees leave for several reasons but the human resources department and the department authorities should identify the reasons and handle the employees effectively. The loss of workforce affects the productivity of the organization as the work gets divided on the remaining available people.
