You ll avoid the tough decisions, you ll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you ll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. If this were a litmus test, the majority of CEOs would fail. One, they build so many barriers to upward communication that the very idea of someone lower in the hierarchy looking up to the leader for help is ludicrous. Two, the corporate culture they foster often defines asking for help as weakness or failure, so people cover up their gaps, and the organization suffers accordingly.
Real leaders make themselves accessible and available.
They show concern for the efforts and challenges faced by underlings even as they demand high standards. Accordingly, they are more likely to create an environment where problem analysis replaces blame. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world. Small companies and startups don t have time for analytically detached experts.