Even Whiners Can Lead
Image source by George Hodan
Whiners are potential leaders. But, pessimists can’t lead.
Leader as whiner:
- Progress could be faster.
- Quality could be better.
- Team mates could give more.
- Organizations aren’t meeting needs.
- Structures block rather than energize success.
The line between whiner and leader is optimism.
Whiners become leaders when they press through problem finding to problem solving.
The real anchor:
It’s easier for whiners to blame than take responsibility.
Whiners are blamers.
Blamers can’t lead.
The next time you hear yourself whining, take responsibility. Stop complaining about what others aren’t doing. Do something yourself.
Whining identifies potential improvements.
From whining to leading:
- Talk less. Whiners talk too much and do too little. Talking apart from action centers on problems. Talking during action focuses on solutions. “How can we fix this” is better than “Here’s why it can’t be done.”
- Solve what you can. Postpone the rest. A whiner who can’t postpone or prioritize is an overwhelmed whiner. Everything’s bad.
- Feeling powerless is a self-imposed myth. You can always do something. (See: Gifts From an Empty Cup”)
- Plan for the worst. Contingency plans are a pessimist’s gift.
- Consistently ask, “What’s next?”
- Move from “What if?” to “We could.”
- Listen to optimists. Don’t reject optimists because you believe they don’t see the whole picture. You don’t either.
- Admit shooting things down isn’t a virtue.
- Substitute lifting up for drag down. Your negativity makes others negative. Welcome to the dark work environment you created. Ask yourself, “How am I making others feel?”
- Ask, “Where does whining take me?” When it’s a good place, go with it.
Great leaders whine with optimism.
Leaders do more than point out wrongs. They step toward remedies.
I’m a huge fan of whiners who work toward solutions. Beware of whiners who don’t find solutions. They’re destructive anchors.
What suggestions can you offer leaders who tend to whine?
Great post! This week I blogged about how “Cry-Babies Don’t Create Solutions”, so this topic really resonated with me. We’ve got to stop whining; we’re eroding our influence. Leaders are called to solve problems, not gossip or whine about them.
Had a whiner managing the company – and his performance was extra ordinary. He managed to achieve what others could not. He did the impossible. A whiner can’t be a leader – we saw the opposite. Maybe an exception.
“Ach! She canna give any more captain!” – Scottie, Star Strek. And then, …
Reblogged this on Makes Me Wander and commented:
I’ll try to remember that when I’m doing my homework! Thanks George!
Number 3 complete falsehood. Don’t believe me try to Make a horse thirsty. Then try to make him drink. Them try to get MR Ed to go to the bathroom. Go ahead. Share your results.
Understanding our powerlessness has the potential to be one of our greatest strengths once we understand the truth of the situation.
See AA Big Book and ask yourself how many human beings have solved problems using this simple program, over 200 different 12 Step Programs dealing with seemingly different issues. Hint—-all the same issue the human condition.
I am also of the opinion whiners absolutely can and do lead. The question for me is are they heading me in a direction I want to go?
Lastly, and hope it is ok if I disagree with some of what you share Dan, especially if I make
a decent case for why. Lastly, think leaders get a bit of a good rap as opposed to a bad one.
Leaders are just blood and guts successes and failures just like everyone else. The reason we know more about some of these folks is cause they ended up in positions that we heard more about some of their decisions than some other folks. They are still just fallible human beings nothing more nothing less.
If we had the chance to see all of them instead of just the decisions they made that worked out we may not see them in the way we do.
JFK, great guy, mythical leader? Dude cheated on his wife…where is that in any leadership manual just as an example.
Thanks again for another thought provoking post Dan.
Scott
Well said, Dan! You are allowed to whine – as long as you have a solution for the particular problem or incident. And No! Just because your employee made you aware of a mistake regarding service in front of a customer you were about to serve yourself doesn’t mean they think they are smarter than you. Maybe you just forgot where you started.
Remember: great leaders (including whiners) can only strive for perfection. Perfection is just a motivation.
This post really helps a lot. Thank you for this 🙂
http://thegirlbehindthepen.wordpress.com/
“Stop complaining about what others aren’t doing. Do something yourself.” Jot this line down… Thanks Sir for sharing your valuable knowledge and experience with novice like us.. Twitted as well… 🙂
Dear Dan,
A very interesting & useful post. The line between whiner and leader is not ‘optimism’ but ‘action’ that can lead to a solution.
Good morning Dan. I have yet to work under a whining leader who I feel inspires others to do their best. Whiners continually focus on the negative while ignoring the positive, making it difficult to identify celebratory moments/accomplishments. Whiners sap others enthusiasm making it hard for them to do their best. Followers eventually lose focus and interest resulting in effort that is less than desirable.(To those who are whining leaders.) When you are pleased with your teams progress, effort, or the successful completion of a project, never underestimate the power of a sincere ‘atta-boy’! “Oh yea, & when your happy and you know it, put a smile on your face & let others know it”…
Once upon a time there were two firemen. One was a whiner and the other was a leader. The whiner complained about the fire but did nothing about it. The leader got a water hose and put the fire out. End of story.
Author: http://www.joeegan.com
Once upon a time there were two firemen. One was the boss, the other was an experienced fireman. The experienced fireman complained about the number of fires and provided concrete steps/solutions to help prevent avoidable fires. The boss ignored the experienced fireman, called him out as a whiner, because if there weren’t enough fires, he’d have to cut his work-force and then he won’t be able to go up the ranks. Not the end of the story. 🙂
lets agree it is a very thick line between Whining and Leading Not just a line…
For me a leader heading into unknown with lack of knowledge and no interest to understand what he is heading to, by “showing off” an optimism is distructive to any organization and would push the realistic staff around him to be pessimistic due to his lack of vision and “unjustified Over Optimism”, especially when he is a Manager.
If disagreeing with such manager is called Whining then we are in trouble.
Note: for this kind of managers, disagreement is often called and calassified as whining so they feel no guilt not listening to them or even would try pushing them away.
Be a Whiner is good but on the optimistic way is the best to lead the world.
There’s an underlying assumption that people with authority (not always leaders, even when they are so called) do not have self-serving goals. In a culture of empire-building, improvements in efficiency, cost, etc. are seen as threats to their way of working. People who really want to make changes despite challenges are labeled as whiners while pseudo-leaders preach about positive attitude in front of the rank-and-file team members. Sometimes there is active sabotaging of well-meaning efforts of the ‘whiners’ to preserve status-quo or keeping control so that a potential challenge to their position gets nipped in the bud.