**3. Structure and dimensions of the Performance Triangle model**

#### **3.1. Success**

Too often, success is measured solely by stock price, cash flow, growth rates, profits, or other financial measures. We feel that this practice is too limiting since it applies to for-profit companies only and encourages near-term thinking that feeds into behaviors that bring out the dark side of leadership. Pressures for immediate results from shareholders and a multitude of other stakeholders create an environment that is unforgiving and intensely competitive where poor leadership is overlooked in exchange for short-term profits or stock price. Enron might be the poster child and best example of how an inordinate focus on financial performance, stock price in this case, can influence and warp an entire organization. We prefer to evaluate success using the following elements:


### *"I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can be very often traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great energies and talents of its people."—Thomas J. Watson, Jr.*

While there are undoubtedly many other factors that influence success of any organization whether for-profit, not-for-profit, governmental organization, or other form, these five elements for success are among the most critical and keys to success.

#### **3.2. Culture**

Rather than preach, I will offer a brief introduction of our logic behind each dimension. Then I will phrase the discussion of the various elements that make up the dimensions of dynamic capabilities in the form of a question. The idea is to stimulate introspective thought to answer the question and to encourage readers look at themselves and their organizations and attempt to gain insight and new meaning. Hopefully, some readers of this chapter will gain a level of perspective that will allow them to appreciate people-centric management principles and

Too often, success is measured solely by stock price, cash flow, growth rates, profits, or other financial measures. We feel that this practice is too limiting since it applies to for-profit companies only and encourages near-term thinking that feeds into behaviors that bring out the dark side of leadership. Pressures for immediate results from shareholders and a multitude of other stakeholders create an environment that is unforgiving and intensely competitive where poor leadership is overlooked in exchange for short-term profits or stock price. Enron might be the poster child and best example of how an inordinate focus on financial performance, stock price in this case, can influence and warp an entire organization. We prefer to

**3. Structure and dimensions of the Performance Triangle model**

avoid some of the dark sides of leadership in their careers.

evaluate success using the following elements:

**3.1. Success**

**Figure 2.** The performance triangle.

114 Dark Sides of Organizational Behavior and Leadership

The culture of the organization creates shared context, enables or inhibits knowledge exchange, and defines invisible boundaries of collaboration. A vibrant culture establishes shared context as the common ground with a shared agenda, language, mental models, purpose, and, relationships [11]. Shared context describes a shared mindset and the behavior of individuals based on shared norms, beliefs, values, and assumptions. The organizational culture becomes the invisible force that, like gravity, shapes all interactions within the universe that the organization exists. Everyone, including the CEO, is strongly influenced by the inexorable force of the organizational culture. Similar to The Force in Star Wars, the culture permeates everyone and everything in the organization and shapes every action or reaction. While senior executives can influence the culture, it is extremely difficult to function effectively if executives are out of step with the beliefs and shared assumptions of the rest of the company. CEOs can force changes, but these changes commonly become temporary, and the organization reverts to its former behaviors when the executive leader is gone. The classic example is Lee Iacocca at Chrysler. Iacocca is widely credited with saving ailing Chrysler in the 1980s, but the company reverted to its former ways shortly after he left the company in 1992 which ultimately lead to the ill-fated marriage of Chrysler with Daimler-Benz in 1998. The failure of the merger of Chrysler and Daimler is widely attributed to cultural differences between the two organizations. Iacocca demonstrated that it is possible for a strong leader to force behavior changes through incentives or punitive action but when the force from the leader is removed, the people and the organization revert to their former behaviors.

#### *"The effectiveness of organizations could be doubled if managers discovered how to tap into the unrealized potential present in their workforce."—Douglas McGregor*

Organizational culture either enables knowledge sharing or is a barrier to sharing even simple pieces of information [12]. Suppiah and Sandhu found that 90% of organizational knowledge is tacit in nature, meaning that the vast body of knowledge is contained in the minds and experience of employees [13]. Any condition that inhibits the free flow of knowledge among people throughout the organization acts like an infection that diminishes the ability of the organization to use that knowledge. Peter Drucker said that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" which means that the force of the culture can overwhelm and derail the best laid plans or actions by leaders. We suggest that many leaders revert to detrimental leadership behavior in response to the intense force of the organizational culture.

both decision-making and performance measurement is also a strong force that encourages

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Consider the common thread through these elements of organizational culture, **knowledge sharing**. A key enabler or inhibitor to knowledge sharing is trust. There is a substantial body of research indicating that trust, or lack thereof, may be the single most powerful force in the culture and possibly the entire organization [12, 15]. Think about it. If I do not trust you, I am not going to share what I know with you and if you do not trust me, you are not going to share what you know with me either. We have observed many organizations lacking in trust and I expect that anyone reading this has had similar experiences. Leaders with personality insecurities or narcissistic tendencies contribute to the shared belief that others cannot be trusted. On the other hand, it is possible that solid leaders enter an organization with great intentions and high aspirations and are told of day one "do not trust so-and-so". This may or not be true, but the new leader adapts their behaviors accordingly in response to the culture. This also, may be one of those classic "chicken or the egg" scenarios. Did leadership behaviors create the lack of trust or did a shared belief, whether justified or not, shape behaviors that reinforced the lack of trust. Either way, the culture influences and may reinforce bad leadership behaviors. The Great Place to Work Institute identifies three dimensions of trust: credibility, fairness, and respect which collectively make up the "Trust Index" [16]. We believe cultures that have high levels of the Performance Triangle elements of culture and trust can help good leaders become great leaders. Leaders who might be seduced by the Dark Side of the Force can become effective leaders by removing some of the forces that encourage poor leadership

Leadership, in the broadest sense, is characterized by effective communication and interaction with others at all levels throughout the organization. Successful leadership varies by organization and situation. A leadership style that is successful in one organization in a specific situation may not necessarily be effective if applied in a different organization or situation. Effective leaders interact with people on a personal level, relate to others to facilitate meaningful collaboration, and establish a supportive work environment based on trust [17]. The importance of effective communication skills and interaction with followers are recurring themes in the literature [18–20]. Effective leaders, therefore, must develop effective communication and interaction skills that are natural and unique to the leader, the organization, and the situation. Ultimately, what is important is that true leaders champion creativity and experimentation and help mold an environment where the individuals in the organization adopt a shared vision, collaborate in a culture of trust, and engage multiple personalities to solve problems and add value. Specific communication and interaction strategies will vary from organization to organization and leader to leader. However, the overriding, primary, objectives are for the shared vision, collaboration, and positive relationships to become inte-

*"Our attention has a short time-span. It takes passion to keep it awake."***—***Claude Adrien* 

by nurturing a dynamic people-centric management environment.

grated into the culture of the organization.

*Helvétius, 1715-1771*

destructive leadership behaviors.

**3.3. Leadership**

Knowledge that is not shared, exchanged, and transferred both vertically and horizontally has no value to an organization. Therefore, collaboration, the base of the Michel model in **Figure 2**, is critically important. The challenge for any executive is to help influence as well as function within a culture that facilitates people working together on tasks that add value to the organization. Effective collaboration requires a shared problem and commitment with people working together with shared way of doing things.

With this brief discussion of organizational culture, here are the elements within the Performance Triangle model and questions to consider and reflect upon:


Consider that these intangible elements cannot be touched, observed directly, and are very difficult to quantify which is why, we believe, that organizational culture takes a back seat in university curricula to data-driven decision-making models, six-sigma, or other numbers driven methods. A current management textbook that is used in many universities dedicates only 34 pages (6%) out of 545 pages of the content to organizational culture. Research shows that 80% of all multi-national mergers or acquisitions fail to yield expected results due primarily to difference between the two cultures involved. Surprisingly, 90% of key decision-making executives indicate that cultural differences between the two organizations is a key success factor while less than 10% provide any resources or effort into understanding and integrating the cultures in either the due-diligence or implementation phases of the project [14]. We believe this is at least partially due to the heavy emphasis on data-driven decision-making models that are hammered into college and MBA students combined with the pressure to be able to document and prove performance. We believe that the heavy emphasis on data for both decision-making and performance measurement is also a strong force that encourages destructive leadership behaviors.

Consider the common thread through these elements of organizational culture, **knowledge sharing**. A key enabler or inhibitor to knowledge sharing is trust. There is a substantial body of research indicating that trust, or lack thereof, may be the single most powerful force in the culture and possibly the entire organization [12, 15]. Think about it. If I do not trust you, I am not going to share what I know with you and if you do not trust me, you are not going to share what you know with me either. We have observed many organizations lacking in trust and I expect that anyone reading this has had similar experiences. Leaders with personality insecurities or narcissistic tendencies contribute to the shared belief that others cannot be trusted. On the other hand, it is possible that solid leaders enter an organization with great intentions and high aspirations and are told of day one "do not trust so-and-so". This may or not be true, but the new leader adapts their behaviors accordingly in response to the culture. This also, may be one of those classic "chicken or the egg" scenarios. Did leadership behaviors create the lack of trust or did a shared belief, whether justified or not, shape behaviors that reinforced the lack of trust. Either way, the culture influences and may reinforce bad leadership behaviors. The Great Place to Work Institute identifies three dimensions of trust: credibility, fairness, and respect which collectively make up the "Trust Index" [16]. We believe cultures that have high levels of the Performance Triangle elements of culture and trust can help good leaders become great leaders. Leaders who might be seduced by the Dark Side of the Force can become effective leaders by removing some of the forces that encourage poor leadership by nurturing a dynamic people-centric management environment.

#### **3.3. Leadership**

Organizational culture either enables knowledge sharing or is a barrier to sharing even simple pieces of information [12]. Suppiah and Sandhu found that 90% of organizational knowledge is tacit in nature, meaning that the vast body of knowledge is contained in the minds and experience of employees [13]. Any condition that inhibits the free flow of knowledge among people throughout the organization acts like an infection that diminishes the ability of the organization to use that knowledge. Peter Drucker said that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" which means that the force of the culture can overwhelm and derail the best laid plans or actions by leaders. We suggest that many leaders revert to detrimental leadership behavior

Knowledge that is not shared, exchanged, and transferred both vertically and horizontally has no value to an organization. Therefore, collaboration, the base of the Michel model in **Figure 2**, is critically important. The challenge for any executive is to help influence as well as function within a culture that facilitates people working together on tasks that add value to the organization. Effective collaboration requires a shared problem and commitment with

With this brief discussion of organizational culture, here are the elements within the

• Understanding—Do people share an understanding of where the organization is and

• Intent—Do people share a common intent of how to move the organization forward to

• Agenda—Do people share a common agenda on what needs to be done to move the orga-

• Aspirations—Do people share a common sense of purpose to meet goals and objectives?

• Norms—Do people share a common set of norms of behavior needed to get ahead within

Consider that these intangible elements cannot be touched, observed directly, and are very difficult to quantify which is why, we believe, that organizational culture takes a back seat in university curricula to data-driven decision-making models, six-sigma, or other numbers driven methods. A current management textbook that is used in many universities dedicates only 34 pages (6%) out of 545 pages of the content to organizational culture. Research shows that 80% of all multi-national mergers or acquisitions fail to yield expected results due primarily to difference between the two cultures involved. Surprisingly, 90% of key decision-making executives indicate that cultural differences between the two organizations is a key success factor while less than 10% provide any resources or effort into understanding and integrating the cultures in either the due-diligence or implementation phases of the project [14]. We believe this is at least partially due to the heavy emphasis on data-driven decision-making models that are hammered into college and MBA students combined with the pressure to be able to document and prove performance. We believe that the heavy emphasis on data for

in response to the intense force of the organizational culture.

people working together with shared way of doing things.

where it is going or attempting to go?

116 Dark Sides of Organizational Behavior and Leadership

nization toward meeting goals and objectives?

meet goals and objectives?

the organization?

Performance Triangle model and questions to consider and reflect upon:

Leadership, in the broadest sense, is characterized by effective communication and interaction with others at all levels throughout the organization. Successful leadership varies by organization and situation. A leadership style that is successful in one organization in a specific situation may not necessarily be effective if applied in a different organization or situation. Effective leaders interact with people on a personal level, relate to others to facilitate meaningful collaboration, and establish a supportive work environment based on trust [17]. The importance of effective communication skills and interaction with followers are recurring themes in the literature [18–20]. Effective leaders, therefore, must develop effective communication and interaction skills that are natural and unique to the leader, the organization, and the situation. Ultimately, what is important is that true leaders champion creativity and experimentation and help mold an environment where the individuals in the organization adopt a shared vision, collaborate in a culture of trust, and engage multiple personalities to solve problems and add value. Specific communication and interaction strategies will vary from organization to organization and leader to leader. However, the overriding, primary, objectives are for the shared vision, collaboration, and positive relationships to become integrated into the culture of the organization.

#### *"Our attention has a short time-span. It takes passion to keep it awake."***—***Claude Adrien Helvétius, 1715-1771*

With this brief discussion of leadership, here are the elements within the Performance Triangle model and questions to consider and reflect upon:

Performance Triangle model, systems represent the institutional framework with rules, routines, and tools that set the stage for rigorous and disciplined leadership. Technology based information systems accumulate, store, process, provide access to information, and facilitate immediate feedback. Human systems in the form of rules, routines, and guidelines of many

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With this brief discussion of systems, here are the elements within the Performance Triangle

• Information—Do decision makers at all levels have access to timely and relevant information to know what is going on inside and outside the organization to make informed

• Strategy—Do leaders and followers clearly understand the rules of the game and what is

• Implementation—Do decision makers throughout the organization clearly understand

• Beliefs—Do decision makers throughout the organization have a shared ambition to sup-

• Boundaries—Do decision makers throughout the organization have a firm understanding

Peter Drucker said, "The purpose of information is not knowledge. It is being able to take the right action." From our research we have seen too many leaders make informed decisions using data that is not relevant, many times generated by a legacy system with data that had meaning 10 years ago but not today. We have seen good leaders make bad decisions because they did not have timely or relevant information, or, they did not understand or share the same objectives as the rest of the organization. twenty-first century leaders, particularly in established organizations, might be well served to reflect on these questions relative to their organizations and if the answer is "no" or "I do not know" or "maybe," they should dig deeper. We suggest that a little skepticism is healthy and leaders who honestly search to answer these questions can make needed changes to get the right information to the right people at the right time, which would help mitigate many of the dark leadership behaviors what we see so often.

Control systems are needed to manage both evolutionary and revolutionary change by formalizing beliefs, setting boundaries on acceptable strategic behavior, defining and monitoring performance variables, encouraging debate, and discussion about uncertainties, communicating new strategies, establishing targets, and securing attention to new strategic initiatives [21]. Peter Drucker observed that "So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work." Unfortunately, most traditional management systems and leadership

types provide frameworks that give technology structure and relevance.

*"You cannot understand a system unless you change it."—Kurt Lewin*

model and questions to consider and reflect upon:

what actions are needed to be successful?

port organizational objectives?

needed to achieve strategic and operational objectives?

of boundaries or limits to their decisions or authority?

decisions?

**3.5. People**


While our research indicates that all five of the elements that define effective leadership in the Performance Triangle model are important, we find that two are particularly significant; sense making and risk dialog. We have observed many leaders who fail to sense significant changes occurring in the internal or external environment early enough. When they do, in many cases there appears to be a knee-jerk reaction as the leader attempts to make up for lost time or opportunities or to cover his or her oversight. Many time the reason seems to be the strength of the organizational culture that guides a leader to accept a foregone conclusion despite a wealth of indicators. A classic example of this behavior is the rejection of digital photography by executives at Kodak. By the time executives at Kodak realized their error, it was too late. Another reason seems to be that the leader is being constantly bombarded with information and confronted with an unending stream of issues so they lose focus on what is important. The constant barrage of information and the stress of dealing with day-to-day issues interferes with the leader's sense making ability by desensitizing them to what is happening until it is too late. The other major contributor, which we call "risk dialog", relates to the appetite for risk-taking that the organization has. Any project, initiative, or new effort involves risk and too often we observe environments, created primarily by shareholders, that punish failure to deliver. In an environment where failures to deliver are punished, leaders will minimize risk and choose safety or demonstrate the dark side of leadership in order to mitigate risk and prevent failure. In a people-centric management environment, risk-taking is encouraged and failures are applauded with "Good try! We know what would happen if we did nothing. Next time it will work!"

#### **3.4. Systems**

The role of systems is to create meaning while balancing top down direction with bottom up creativity. Systems support implementation with the right balance between freedom and constraints to maintain control. To support collaboration among people, systems make information available to help people find purpose and support the decision-making process. In the Performance Triangle model, systems represent the institutional framework with rules, routines, and tools that set the stage for rigorous and disciplined leadership. Technology based information systems accumulate, store, process, provide access to information, and facilitate immediate feedback. Human systems in the form of rules, routines, and guidelines of many types provide frameworks that give technology structure and relevance.

#### *"You cannot understand a system unless you change it."—Kurt Lewin*

With this brief discussion of systems, here are the elements within the Performance Triangle model and questions to consider and reflect upon:


Peter Drucker said, "The purpose of information is not knowledge. It is being able to take the right action." From our research we have seen too many leaders make informed decisions using data that is not relevant, many times generated by a legacy system with data that had meaning 10 years ago but not today. We have seen good leaders make bad decisions because they did not have timely or relevant information, or, they did not understand or share the same objectives as the rest of the organization. twenty-first century leaders, particularly in established organizations, might be well served to reflect on these questions relative to their organizations and if the answer is "no" or "I do not know" or "maybe," they should dig deeper. We suggest that a little skepticism is healthy and leaders who honestly search to answer these questions can make needed changes to get the right information to the right people at the right time, which would help mitigate many of the dark leadership behaviors what we see so often.

#### **3.5. People**

With this brief discussion of leadership, here are the elements within the Performance Triangle

• Sense making—Do leaders have the capability to sense changes in internal and external

• Strategy conversion—Do leaders have an understanding of why the organization has es-

• Performance conversion—Do leaders have a clear understanding of whether the organization is on track, what needs to be done to remain on track, and what needs to be done to

• Contribution dialog—Do leaders have a clear understanding of what they can do to contribute toward moving the organization forward? Do leaders clearly understand their role? • Risk dialog—Do leaders have a clear understanding of the potential risks and the level of

While our research indicates that all five of the elements that define effective leadership in the Performance Triangle model are important, we find that two are particularly significant; sense making and risk dialog. We have observed many leaders who fail to sense significant changes occurring in the internal or external environment early enough. When they do, in many cases there appears to be a knee-jerk reaction as the leader attempts to make up for lost time or opportunities or to cover his or her oversight. Many time the reason seems to be the strength of the organizational culture that guides a leader to accept a foregone conclusion despite a wealth of indicators. A classic example of this behavior is the rejection of digital photography by executives at Kodak. By the time executives at Kodak realized their error, it was too late. Another reason seems to be that the leader is being constantly bombarded with information and confronted with an unending stream of issues so they lose focus on what is important. The constant barrage of information and the stress of dealing with day-to-day issues interferes with the leader's sense making ability by desensitizing them to what is happening until it is too late. The other major contributor, which we call "risk dialog", relates to the appetite for risk-taking that the organization has. Any project, initiative, or new effort involves risk and too often we observe environments, created primarily by shareholders, that punish failure to deliver. In an environment where failures to deliver are punished, leaders will minimize risk and choose safety or demonstrate the dark side of leadership in order to mitigate risk and prevent failure. In a people-centric management environment, risk-taking is encouraged and failures are applauded with "Good try! We know what would happen if we did nothing. Next time it will work!"

The role of systems is to create meaning while balancing top down direction with bottom up creativity. Systems support implementation with the right balance between freedom and constraints to maintain control. To support collaboration among people, systems make information available to help people find purpose and support the decision-making process. In the

tablished strategic goals and are goals founded on lessons from the past?

model and questions to consider and reflect upon:

environments and interpret its meaning?

achieve superior performance?

118 Dark Sides of Organizational Behavior and Leadership

**3.4. Systems**

risk that the organization can tolerate?

Control systems are needed to manage both evolutionary and revolutionary change by formalizing beliefs, setting boundaries on acceptable strategic behavior, defining and monitoring performance variables, encouraging debate, and discussion about uncertainties, communicating new strategies, establishing targets, and securing attention to new strategic initiatives [21]. Peter Drucker observed that "So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work." Unfortunately, most traditional management systems and leadership behaviors do more to interfere with the ability of people to perform than to enhance performance [22]. Interactive leadership and diagnostic systems play an important role in creating a work environment where people succeed in "playing the inner game" [23].

**3.6. Collaboration, purpose, and relationships**

relationships?

tional objectives?

mon goals and objectives?

Work environments with effective and intense collaboration, a high sense of purpose and trusting relationships have a stabilizing effect on organizations known as "resilience" or "robustness" [26, 27]. Resilience allows an organization to absorb unanticipated events or disruptions and then respond quickly and decisively. Organizations reach higher levels of resilience with cooperative strategies, again powered by people [28]. Effective leaders support, promote, and encourage collaboration [29], purpose, and healthy relationships [30]. Ineffective leaders demonstrate behaviors or introduce processes that inhibit the develop-

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*"Most discussion of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake."—Peter Drucker* With this brief discussion of collaboration, purpose, and relationships, here are the dimensions within the Performance Triangle model and questions to consider and reflect on:

• Relationships—Do co-workers and management have and maintain healthy, trusting,

• Purpose—Do people share a common higher purpose for the organization and organiza-

• Collaboration—Do people collaborate effectively by sharing knowledge to achieve com-

The importance of nurturing a resilient organization in the twenty-first century VUCA environment cannot be emphasized enough. With rapid advances in technology and changing consumer expectation driven by Facebook, Twitter, and other media, threats, and opportunities emerge at almost literally light speed. Ineffective leaders, usually inadvertently, create environments that discourage or inhibit the dimensions that make the organization resilient. Readers should consider these questions carefully and as objectively as possible and ask yourselves, "What do I do (or not do) that promotes the development of trusting relationships, common purpose, and knowledge sharing through collaboration?" Too often we have seen well-meaning leaders who believe in competition introduce performance goals or quotas with performance measurement systems that stifle the development of trust and collaboration. So, called "stretch goals" many times provide the fuel that encourages poor leadership behaviors in exchange for short term performance, bonuses, or recognition. The long-term effect can be

Cleary, individuals who demonstrate poor leadership are complex. The reasons for dark side behaviors like destructive leadership, narcistic leadership, toxic leadership, incompetence,

debilitating, particularly when confronted with an unexpected disruption.

**4. Closing comments or what have we learned?**

ment of these attributes thereby making the organization less resilient.

Individuals perform at their highest potential by winning their "inner game" by overcoming self-doubt, fear, bias, limiting concepts or assumptions that distort perceptions, decisions, behaviors, actions and stress that interfere with, and diminish, performance [23, 24]. People who master their "inner game" become winners and have awareness about what is going on around them, the freedom to choose the best solution, and trust in others to help people focus attention on tasks and problems. Reaching a state of flow, the state where performance and creativity are at a peak, must be a primary leadership objective at all levels of the organization [25]. As the research shows, more leaders demonstrate behaviors and methods that prevent people from achieving "flow" than to create an environment to encourage it.

### *"There are managers so preoccupied with their e-mail messages that they never look up from their screens to see what's happening in the non-digital world."—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi*

With this brief discussion of people, here are the elements within the Performance Triangle model and questions to consider and reflect upon:


In our research and observations helping create an environment where people can focus their energy, are aware of the world around them, trust each other, and have freedom of choice may be the leader's single most important task. Here again, trust emerges as the single most powerful force. It is difficult to earn, so very easy to lose, and very difficult to regain once lost. Yet, the preponderance of leadership behaviors and methods do exactly the opposite. I encourage readers to reflect deeply on how their actions or inactions enable or prevent people from winning their "inner game," It takes a long time and a lot of effort to create an environment that is high in these elements, particularly trust. Too often, leaders ignore their people and these elements until a crisis emerges and the "Call to Action" memo's start to flow, or the critical action team is created, both of which, we feel, fuel destructive leadership with pressure from stakeholders. Effective leaders in the twenty-first century must take a people-centric approach and be proactive in helping people throughout the organization focus their energy on value adding tasks, be aware of what is going on around them, trust others and themselves, and have freedom of choice which also involves an element of risk and potential failure.

#### **3.6. Collaboration, purpose, and relationships**

behaviors do more to interfere with the ability of people to perform than to enhance performance [22]. Interactive leadership and diagnostic systems play an important role in creating a

Individuals perform at their highest potential by winning their "inner game" by overcoming self-doubt, fear, bias, limiting concepts or assumptions that distort perceptions, decisions, behaviors, actions and stress that interfere with, and diminish, performance [23, 24]. People who master their "inner game" become winners and have awareness about what is going on around them, the freedom to choose the best solution, and trust in others to help people focus attention on tasks and problems. Reaching a state of flow, the state where performance and creativity are at a peak, must be a primary leadership objective at all levels of the organization [25]. As the research shows, more leaders demonstrate behaviors and methods that prevent

*"There are managers so preoccupied with their e-mail messages that they never look up from their screens to see what's happening in the non-digital world."—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi* With this brief discussion of people, here are the elements within the Performance Triangle

• Focus—Are people allowed to focus attention and energy on tasks? Are interferences pre-

• Trust—Do people trust co-workers and management to be treated fairly and with respect?

• Choice—Are people allowed the freedom to use their own creative ability to solve prob-

In our research and observations helping create an environment where people can focus their energy, are aware of the world around them, trust each other, and have freedom of choice may be the leader's single most important task. Here again, trust emerges as the single most powerful force. It is difficult to earn, so very easy to lose, and very difficult to regain once lost. Yet, the preponderance of leadership behaviors and methods do exactly the opposite. I encourage readers to reflect deeply on how their actions or inactions enable or prevent people from winning their "inner game," It takes a long time and a lot of effort to create an environment that is high in these elements, particularly trust. Too often, leaders ignore their people and these elements until a crisis emerges and the "Call to Action" memo's start to flow, or the critical action team is created, both of which, we feel, fuel destructive leadership with pressure from stakeholders. Effective leaders in the twenty-first century must take a people-centric approach and be proactive in helping people throughout the organization focus their energy on value adding tasks, be aware of what is going on around them, trust others and themselves, and have freedom of choice which also involves

work environment where people succeed in "playing the inner game" [23].

people from achieving "flow" than to create an environment to encourage it.

venting people from focusing their abilities to complete tasks?

• Awareness—Are people aware of forces that influence actions and decisions?

model and questions to consider and reflect upon:

120 Dark Sides of Organizational Behavior and Leadership

lems, respond to customers, or to be innovative?

an element of risk and potential failure.

Is management credible?

Work environments with effective and intense collaboration, a high sense of purpose and trusting relationships have a stabilizing effect on organizations known as "resilience" or "robustness" [26, 27]. Resilience allows an organization to absorb unanticipated events or disruptions and then respond quickly and decisively. Organizations reach higher levels of resilience with cooperative strategies, again powered by people [28]. Effective leaders support, promote, and encourage collaboration [29], purpose, and healthy relationships [30]. Ineffective leaders demonstrate behaviors or introduce processes that inhibit the development of these attributes thereby making the organization less resilient.

#### *"Most discussion of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake."—Peter Drucker*

With this brief discussion of collaboration, purpose, and relationships, here are the dimensions within the Performance Triangle model and questions to consider and reflect on:


The importance of nurturing a resilient organization in the twenty-first century VUCA environment cannot be emphasized enough. With rapid advances in technology and changing consumer expectation driven by Facebook, Twitter, and other media, threats, and opportunities emerge at almost literally light speed. Ineffective leaders, usually inadvertently, create environments that discourage or inhibit the dimensions that make the organization resilient. Readers should consider these questions carefully and as objectively as possible and ask yourselves, "What do I do (or not do) that promotes the development of trusting relationships, common purpose, and knowledge sharing through collaboration?" Too often we have seen well-meaning leaders who believe in competition introduce performance goals or quotas with performance measurement systems that stifle the development of trust and collaboration. So, called "stretch goals" many times provide the fuel that encourages poor leadership behaviors in exchange for short term performance, bonuses, or recognition. The long-term effect can be debilitating, particularly when confronted with an unexpected disruption.

#### **4. Closing comments or what have we learned?**

Cleary, individuals who demonstrate poor leadership are complex. The reasons for dark side behaviors like destructive leadership, narcistic leadership, toxic leadership, incompetence, greed, and a host of other behaviors that have negative effects on other individuals and the organization are also complex. Complex interactions between leader's personalities, ambitions, training, combined with forces like pressure from stakeholders and the inexorable force of organizational culture may shape and bring out the bad in even the most stalwart individual. Leadership should not be evaluated in a vacuum and treated as if the leaders exist in isolation from the rest of the organization. Rather, leadership, good or bad, should be evaluated as an integral component of a dynamic system with complex interactions that the leader can affect but also must work within.

**Author details**

Address all correspondence to: hnold@yahoo.com

Polk State College, Winter Haven/Lakeland, Florida, USA

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#### *"The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday's logic."—Peter Drucker*

I believe that many potentially good leaders fall victim to forces both inside and outside of organizations that play on fears, personality weaknesses, or ambitions that bring out dark side leadership behaviors or excuse them in favor of earnings or some other quantifiable measure. Business owners, founders, and top-level executives can help mitigate poor leadership and promote superior leadership by actively developing organizations with a people-centric management style. People with a shared purpose and healthy, positive, relationships collaborate effectively and share their unique knowledge. Before this can happen though, business owners, founders, and top-level executives must become aware of the invisible forces generated by the organizational culture and systems that shape leadership behaviors. The old saying "what gets measured gets done" may not necessarily be good particularly when what is being measured encourages bad behavior. Unseen forces can derail the best or wellintentioned leader, but they can also help make average leadership, good. It goes both ways.

### *"You can analyze the past, but you have to design the future."—Edward de Bono*

Becoming a truly people-centric organization is not easy and takes a great deal of time and effort, and yes, money. It takes a lot more than including the standard "people are our greatest asset" in the corporate mission or purpose statements particularly since people within the organization can easily see through the façade making the statement more of a demotivator rather than a motivator to the people. Decision makers up and down the organizational hierarchy should reflect on the elemental questions that make up the dimensions of a people-centric organization presented in this chapter and attempt to assess the levels of each. If the answers are "I do not know" or "probably not" then they have work to do. Our research shows that organizations that increase the levels of these elements are successful and enjoy superior performance. Further, average leaders can become good and good leaders can become outstanding by accessing the shared body of knowledge in people both inside and outside of the organization [10, 12]. Paying attention to developing the people-centric management can decrease pressures on leaders that influence poor leadership. Nobody can totally eliminate poor leadership. But, a truly people-centric management approach and awareness of the complex forces affecting leadership behaviors can promote good leadership behaviors and help reduce the poor or destructive behaviors. Be aware of The Force within your organization to develop Jedi Knights as leaders and fight the seductive influence of the Dark Side and the evil Sith Lord.
