When asked, after the fact, why a team member didn’t step up, say something, or act more courageously, a common refrain is that they didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, especially those of their leader.
Some team members maintain such a high deference to status and positional authority that they don’t believe it is ever their place to challenge the wisdom or direction of those above them on the org chart.
This loyalty becomes severely misplaced when those they report to are highly ineffective, incompetent, or ethically challenged.
By remaining quiet and acting as a spectator to the unfolding debacle, the team member supports the leader but lets the team and organization down.
The longer this charade goes on, the more damage the leader creates.
In many cases, others learn of the leader’s incompetence years later — after matters have deteriorated to the point where the leader self-implodes.
If not for an unhealthy deference to authority, a team member could have flagged the situation or pushed back against it way before it ended in calamity.
Not surprisingly, research shows that chronic deference and silence toward incompetent or misbehaving leaders harms the culture and team performance.
In organizations where status is worshipped and overplayed, destructive leaders stay in power for a longer time and typically intensify their bad behavior and magnify their incompetence with poor decisions.
Choosing not to speak up is not only a deference to authority but a way to avoid conflict, stay safe, and protect a team member’s self-interest.
What becomes clear to anyone on the outside is that both the leader and the team member bear responsibility for this misfortune.
High-functioning teams and organizations prevent this by institutionalizing the upward voice.
After-action reviews, anonymous feedback channels, pulse surveys, and explicit forums for dissent work to counteract the natural drift toward deference. The best organizations bake these and other forms of upward feedback into the everyday workings of the enterprise.
Leaders across the organization make it clear to everyone that staying silent in the face of bad or incompetent behavior is not acceptable or rational.
In fact, they stress that not raising concerns is a performance failure. They do their part by maintaining confidentiality and eliminating any retribution stemming from upward criticism.
Some of the best organizations go as far as to place the obligation to speak up in performance reviews and promotion criteria.
This makes speaking up a duty and not just an option.
When a deference to authority is frowned upon and evaluated negatively, team members find the courage to step up and challenge ineffective behavior.
How courageous are your team members?
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
