Servant leaders care deeply about their employees. This desire to care for the whole person, both emotionally and spiritually, can lead to faulty, ineffective leadership.
Have you ever been in a store when a young child threw a tantrum? I’ve seen several, and I’ve noted that parents respond in one of two ways. One exasperated, exhausted, and perhaps embarrassed parent tries to avoid dealing with the child’s tantrum by bribing the child with the promise of a new toy! The other parent delivers a stern rebuke and perhaps a spanking to reinforce the message that tantrums will not be tolerated.
Both types of parents love their children. But the first one is enabling a pattern of bad behavior that will likely follow the child into adulthood. Meanwhile, the second one is correcting the bad behavior and holding the child responsible. He or she is empowering the child with knowledge of right versus wrong, good versus bad, and establishing a pattern that will follow the child into adulthood.
Child-Rearing Wisdom Applies to Employees
Solomon, perhaps a young father himself, realized the danger of enabling bad behavior in a child when he wrote:
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Solomon expressed two essential truths in this one verse. First, the training must begin early when the child is young. And second, this formative training will stick; it will stay with the child as they mature.
One day, as I was working through a situation with one of my younger salespeople, I realized there were similarities between raising children and managing employees. The similarities were so great that I adapted Solomon’s wisdom to say,
“Train up an employee in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
As leaders, we are like the two types of parents dealing with a child throwing a tantrum. We can either enable or empower. If we fail to hold young employees accountable for poor decisions and results, we are enablers. However, if we hold employees accountable for their decisions and results, we are empowering them.
The Pitfall of Servant Leadership
This is where servant leaders can get themselves into trouble. Because they care deeply for the whole person, they may be tempted to let poor performance slide; to not hold employees accountable for their poor performance.
Are You an Enabling Leader?
You are an enabling leader if you excuse, justify, ignore, deny, and smooth over an employee’s bad behavior or poor results. As an enabling leader, you provide support and resources in a way that covers up poor performance. You allow employees to avoid facing the full consequences of their bad behavior or unsatisfactory results in the workplace.
An enabling leader says (or thinks) things like:
- “If I criticize her failed presentation, it will just crush her spirit. I don’t want to hurt her feelings!”
- “If I fire him, he’ll have a hard time getting another job that pays this well. He will probably lose his house, and his family will suffer. I can’t do that to them!”
- “If I can just get him through this crisis, I’m sure his performance will improve on the next project.”
An enabling leader will fix or solve the problem, avoid having the employee take responsibility, or face the consequences for their bad behavior or poor results.
Are You an Empowering Leader?
You are an empowering leader if you hold employees accountable for their performance and results. Empowering leaders provide support and resources to equip employees to succeed. As such, the empowering leader never uses resources or support to cover up employees’ failures.
An empowering leader says things like:
- “Your last presentation did not go well. Tell me why you think you lost this sale, then I’ll give you some tips for next time.”
- “Your performance has been below expectations for the last three months. This position is clearly not a good fit for your skill sets. Let’s discuss a position that might better suit you.”
- “I can see you are really struggling to complete this project on time and on budget. What support or resources can I provide you that will allow you to succeed?”
In each example, the empowering leader confronts the issue head-on, holds the employee accountable, and offers the support and resources needed for the employee to succeed.
The Easy Way Out is Never Easy
I know from personal experience that being an enabling leader is never the best solution. While it may seem like a good solution at the time, especially to fix an employee’s mistakes or cover up their lack of results, eventually, the employee, you, and the organization will suffer.
The best long-term approach for you is for you to be an empowering leader who holds employees accountable for their actions and results.
Remember, “Train up an employee in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Discussion Questions
These questions can serve as a useful framework for guiding a thoughtful and engaging discussion about the article and how its insights and perspectives apply to our lives today.
- How can you balance caring for your employees while still holding them accountable for their actions and results?
- What are some common signs of enabling leadership, and how can you recognize and address them in yourself and others?
- How can you effectively communicate with employees about their performance without crushing their spirit or demotivating them?
- How can you provide support and resources to empower your employees to succeed without covering up their failures or poor performance?
- How can you establish a culture of accountability and empowerment within your organization, and what steps can you take to encourage this type of leadership at all levels of your company?
More Articles
I have written several articles on servant leadership recently. You can find them by typing “servant leadership” in the search bar. Meanwhile, here are some of my favorites.
- #482: 7 Traits of An Extraordinary Leader Who Led Through An Impossible Situation
- #480: The Right Purpose Breeds the Right Passion in A Servant Leader
- #478: The Strongest Servant Leaders Are Also Adept Leader Makers
- #456: 8 Signs of A Courageous Christian Servant Leader
- #427: Powerful, Faithful Godly Leaders Embody These Two Traits
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. Have you ever been an enabling leader? How did that work for you, the employee, and the organization?
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Category: Relationships | Servant Leadership
During my law enforcement career we had a few Sergeants who gave glowing evals to staff who didn’t deserve it. The Sergeants wanted to be liked. Their glowing evals enabled the continuance of poor performance. Thus we had to retrain the Sergeants to give honest evals. The result was that officers were held accountable for poor performance. But the officers were also given tools, encouragement, and training to correct their bad performance. They were empowered.
I think puffed evaluations were the most frustrating thing I dealt with during my career. Several folks got promoted based on these false evaluations to well beyond their level of competence! The Peter principle was definately in play. The only reason we succeeded was not everyone reached their level of incompetence at the same time!