I’ve seen it happen many times over the years.
Weak leaders refuse to deal with tough problems head-on. Their inaction or weak solutions cause bigger problems for others down the road.
The decisions of weak leaders have a ripple effect. Like throwing a stone in a calm lake, the ripples go throughout an organization. One problem begets another problem, which begets another. Until finally, someone stands up and says STOP!
Weak Leaders Cause Problems
The worst example of weak leaders causing bigger problems during my career at P&G came in 1994. As a global company, P&G occasionally invested in a financial instrument called derivatives. The point of a derivative is to protect the company from large swings in interest rates or values of foreign currencies. A small swing in rates or currency values in the wrong direction results in small losses that are usually offset when markets change course.
The problem for P&G came when some derivatives went south. The head finance guy didn’t want to close out the loss, so he carried the derivatives over to the next quarter. The market didn’t correct, and the loss grew. When he could no longer hide the loss, the derivatives were finally closed out. The company lost an incredible $157 million!
If the finance guy had gone to his bosses, explained the issue, and closed out the derivatives right away, it would have cost the company a few million dollars. But not facing the problem, then hiding the problem, caused a much bigger problem for the company.
The ripples of this one man’s decisions were felt throughout the company in the form of tightened budgets and personnel cutbacks.
Weak leaders exist in every discipline.
One area where I’ve frequently seen problems with weak leaders arise is in handling personnel. Typically, the problem begins with a person who is a bad hire. They are not qualified to do the work, or they don’t have the drive. For whatever reason, they don’t perform. Their boss doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of terminating an employee, so they let the employee’s poor performance slide.
Consider, for example, a salesperson who is a bad hire. Because of the underperforming salesperson, sales decline, customers get angry, and eventually go to a competitor. When the manager finally takes action, he prolongs the problem by putting the employee on probation. The employee doesn’t improve. Sales continue to decline, and the company loses more customers. When the manager finally terminates the employee, sales have dropped, good customers are lost, and morale in the organization plummets. All because a manager made a poor hiring decision and didn’t want to deal with the problem.
Biblical Examples of Weak Leaders
Weak leaders are not a modern phenomenon. There are weak leaders described throughout the Scripture. In fact, many of the leaders described in the Bible were weak leaders at one time or another.
For example, there’s the whole issue of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. Then, of course, there is David, who has an affair with Bathsheba, arranges to have her husband killed, and tries to cover it all up until the prophet Nathan comes along and confronts David.
The desire to avoid conflict, to cover up a mistake, to gain power or prestige, greed, and lust, all seem to be areas where weak leaders cause problems that other people end up having to handle.
Israel Attacks Benjamin
Perhaps one of the most complex examples of poor leaders failing to deal with a situation is the story involving the nation of Israel attacking the tribe of Benjamin.
The story is recounted in Judges 20-21.
A man and his concubine were traveling through Gilead, a city in the land of the tribe of Benjamin. A Levite priest invited the man and his concubine to stay in his home. Evil men from the city came and took the woman, raped her, and killed her.
As news spread throughout the tribes of Israel, the Israelites came to the Benjamites and told them to turn over the guilty men. The Benjamites refused, and soon a war broke out with all the tribes of Israel united in battle against the tribe of Benjamin. The men of Israel lost the first two battles with the men of Benjamin. During the third battle, the men of Israel nearly wiped out the entire tribe of Benjamin.
In the first two days of battle, 40,000 Israelite men were killed in battle against their Benjamite brothers. On the third day of battle, the Benjamites lost 25,000 men leaving only 600 men in their whole tribe.
Imagine that! 65,000 men were killed in battle because of weak leaders and a series of bad decisions.
- If the city fathers of Gilead had gotten rid of the evil men in the city, the way God commanded this whole situation would have never happened.
- If the Levite priest had stood up to the evil men, this would not have happened.
- If the people of Benjamin had turned over the evil men for punishment, the battles would never have occurred.
- If the army of Israel had fasted, wept, and restored their relationship to God, they would not have lost the first two battles.
Ripple Effect
So, you see what I mean about the ripple effect of weak leaders? Weak city leaders allowed evil men to live in their midst. A weak Levite priest allowed a woman to be raped and killed. The weak leaders of Benjamin were more concerned with tribal unity than justice for the woman. The Israelites were more concerned with vengeance than following God.
One leadership failure after another is in this story of the Benjamites, the Levite, and the people of Israel. Men who do not have the courage to trust God and follow Him faithfully are prone to developing their own solutions to problems. As this story illustrates, man’s solutions are never God’s best!
More Articles
I’ve written several other articles regarding Dependence on God. If you want to read more simply type “Dependence on God” in the search bar. In the meantime, here are four recent articles on Dependence on God.
- #317: What Happens When God Calls You?
- #304: Are Setbacks Merely Stepping Stones to God’s Purpose?
- #264: Persevering Faith in God Produces Great Courage
- #229: Achieving Your God-Sized, Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. Have you encountered weak leaders in your organization? If so, what was the result of their weak leadership?
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Category: Personal | Dependence on God
We had a few sergeants in our police department who were weak leaders. They wanted to be liked rather than hold people accountable. Talk about ripple effect! Their poor leadership allowed poor field performance of some officers, and made it harder for the good sergeants to correct the problem. Eventually, two of the bad sergeants were fired, but it took time. The sooner bad leadership can be corrected the better!
My brother-in-law was Sacramento PD and Army MP. He told me almost the same stories about the ripple effect of bad sergeants (PD & Army)! In the corporate world, the worst offenders tended to be middle managers.