# Leadership as a Root Cause Issue By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-08-16 Some believe that leadership is the root cause of most organizational issues. It is hard to argue with this, especially within organizational structures where "leaders" possess all the power and authority. Why is the organizational culture terrible? Well, the leader isn't setting the right tone and long-term incentives. Why is an organization underperforming? Well, the leader didn't pick the right strategy or doesn't hold people accountable. There are certainly other reasons. As alluded to, structure and social hierarchies play a significant role in organizational issues. But, we suspend the idea of changing the status quo organizational and social structures; leadership almost always rises to the top of the root cause list. Yet, how often does leadership get seriously reformed in organizations? Sure, CEOs and board members change, but these are frequently not discussed as "leadership" issues but strategy issues. A new CEO is brought in to build a new strategy, not because the last CEO was a poor performer. Instead, they were a poor performer because the strategy was wrong. There will always be exceptions, but poor leadership rarely makes the headlines, SEC filings, or internal change memos. Even if it were not always the cause, its lack of mention represents underreporting at a minimum. This may be surprising until one assesses why this void exists. Who are the people making the statements about poor leadership within an organization? How many leaders make public statements that they are bad at their job? What incentive do they have to say such a thing? These are not dumb people who do not understand how organizations, social messaging, and incentives work. They wouldn't be where they were if they didn't. Thus, it's never a leadership problem but some extrality. The past administration, the markets, the managers, the strategy, the economy, and the organization's talent are always at the top of the list. When figuring out the real problem with organizations, start with the leaders and work backward. Only be persuaded by their charm and bribes if one intentionally chooses to sell out early and often for radical means. #### Related Items [[Leadership]] [[Assessments]] [[Assess the Void]] [[Organization]] [[Society]] [[Value]] [[Status Quo]] [[Selling Out]]