Why Highly Efficient Leaders Fail

工作中对中高层领导者的要求越来越高，领导者执行和完成任务的能力是成功的关键驱动因素。然而，这种能力最终却可能变成领导者失败的原因，给领导者个人及其团队和组织带来意外的损失。

With ever-increasing demands at work for both mid-level and senior leaders, the ability to execute and get things done is a key driver of success. But it can ultimately become a leader’s downfall, resulting in unintended costs for the individual, as well as for their teams and organizations.

高度关注任务的领导者之所以高效，往往是牺牲了对人的关注。建立人际关系、鼓励团队、培养其他员工和表达同理心等等这些事情可能被抛在一边。高效领导者失去对人的关注，通常是出于一种狭隘的观念，认为更关注人的活动会拖慢速度，妨碍自己的执行能力和最终取得成功的能力。

The high levels of efficiency that allow highly task-focused leaders to be so productive often come at the expense of a more people-based focus. Things like building relationships, inspiring a team, developing others, and showing empathy can fall by the wayside. Highly efficient leaders often lose their focus on people due to a limiting belief that more people-focused activities will slow them down and impede their ability to execute, and to ultimately be successful.

讽刺的是，强烈关注效率和完成任务（与丹尼尔·戈尔曼的经典著作《富有成效的领导力》中提到的标杆式领导风格一致）会适得其反，让这些领导者的总体效率下降，结果往往是对组织气氛造成负面影响，导致团队成员职业倦怠。2017年的一项研究表明，职业倦怠是对员工敬业度的最大威胁因素，95%的人力资源领导者称其为导致员工流失的关键要素。

The irony is that an intense focus on efficiency and getting things done (consistent with the pacesetting leadership style in Daniel Goleman’s classic Leadership that Gets Results) makes these leaders less effective overall. The result is often a negative impact on organizational climate and burnout of team members. In a 2017 study by Kronos and Future Workplace, burnout was highlighted as the biggest threat to employee engagement, with 95% of HR leaders citing it as a key driver of employee turnover.

这样的领导者自己也可能要承担高昂的代价，如晋升受阻，甚至被解雇——至于个人生活和人际关系受到的影响就更不用说了。

These leaders can also incur high costs themselves, such as having a promotion blocked, or even being fired — not to mention the costs to their personal lives and relationships.

举个例子，我辅导的一位房地产投资公司副总裁萨拉，曾是一位明星员工，却未能升为合伙人。她完成交易的高效率为她赢得了成功，却导致初级员工士气和投入度下降。她也没有投入精力与原本可以支持她成为合伙人的其他人建立良好的关系。虽然完成交易是成为合伙人的重要因素，但公司明确表示，对于组织成功而言这并不是唯一的要素。

Consider Sarah, a Vice President at a real estate investment firm whom I coached, who was a star performer — until her promotion to partner was blocked. Her high levels of efficiency and productivity in closing deals had made her successful, but came at the expense of morale and engagement among the junior staff. She also had not invested in building relationships with others who could advocate for her partnership. While closing deals was an important factor in becoming a partner, her firm sent a clear message that this wasn’t the only factor that mattered to the organization’s success.

在我这里咨询转职的詹姆斯，曾是一家国际专业服务公司的合伙人。他为自己的客户提供了卓越的洞见和成果，具备深厚的专业知识，许多人都觉得他很优秀。然而，他对自己团队的极端要求和不切实际的期望，导致员工敬业度分数很低，有价值的员工纷纷流失，最终他被公司解雇。

James, a career-transition client of mine, was a partner at a global professional services firm. He delivered great insights and results for his clients, had deep domain expertise, and was considered to be brilliant by many. However, the extreme demands and unrealistic expectations he put on his team resulted in low engagement scores, turnover of valued staff and, ultimately, his dismissal.

优秀的领导者能平衡对任务的关注（完成任务）和对人的关注（鼓励、培养和赋能他人）。高度关注任务的领导者追求结果时容易视野狭隘，没有以广阔的视角认识到有时“慢即是快”。两者兼顾的领导者同样会努力追求结果，但不会忘记更广泛的组织需求。他们也能意识到，重要的不是高效——而是有效。

Great leaders are able to balance task-focus (getting things done) with people-focus (inspiring, developing, and empowering others). Highly task-focused leaders tend to have tunnel vision in their drive for results, rather than applying a broader lens that recognizes the need to sometimes “go slow to go fast”. Leaders who balance task- and people-focus are equally driven and also strive for results, but they keep the broader organizational needs in mind. They also recognize that it’s not just about being efficient — it’s about being effective.

罗伯特·安德森（Robert Anderson）和威廉·亚当斯（William Adams）的研究发现，有效领导力的最大特点就是优秀的人际能力，而且他们最大的十个长处中有六项与人际交往能力有关，如倾听、培养别人和赋权等。

In research conducted by Robert Anderson and William Adams for their book Scaling Leadership, they identified that the number one differentiator of effective leaders is strong people skills, and that six out of ten of their biggest strengths related to people skills such as listening, developing others, and empowering their team members.

过度关注任务的领导者还更加被动，出于恐惧采取行动，时常表现出命令、控制或完美主义的行为，让其他人疏远，且不会赋权团队成员。萨拉暗自担心“如果我放开控制、赋权他人，他们会把事情搞砸，让我丢脸”。詹姆斯则认为“如果不这么严格，我就无法成功”。这种狭隘的思维方式让这些领导者陷入高度关注任务、不关心员工的死循环，把双倍精力投入自己最擅长的事——完成任务。

Overly task-focused leaders also tend to be more reactive, operating from a position of fear, and often displaying highly directive, controlling, or perfectionist behaviors that can alienate others and be disempowering to their teams. Sarah had an underlying fear that “If I let go of control and empower others, they’ll mess things up and I’ll look bad.” In James’ case, it was a belief that “If I don’t work this intensely, I won’t be successful.” These limiting mindsets kept these leaders in a “doom loop” of high task-focus and low people-focus, where they doubled-down on what they did best — getting things done.

如果你发现自己过度关注任务，可参考以下建议，调整自己的重心：

If you sense that you may be overly task-focused, here are some suggestions to re-set your priorities:

征求反馈

找到关键利益相关者，问他们觉得你在关注任务和关注人员方面的平衡把握得怎么样。请他们用量化的方式表述：“总共有100分，你觉得我对任务和人员的关注各占多少分？”还可以问，“我该如何表示自己对人员的关注？”如果担心同事无法直接对自己直言不讳，可以让高管教练等第三方协助收集反馈。

Get feedback. 

Ask key stakeholders how well they think you balance your task-focus versus your people-focus. Ask them to quantify it: “Out of 100 points, how would you rate my focus on tasks versus people?” You can also ask, “What could I do to demonstrate greater people focus that would be meaningful to the rest of the team?” If you’re concerned about your colleagues being candid with you directly, a third party such as an executive coach can collect this feedback for you.

找到以人为本的高效途径

结合收到的反馈，寻找可以定期执行的方法，比如定期与直接下属进行职业发展谈话，在谈话中摒除干扰，认真关注对方，或者跟同事一起喝咖啡、了解对方在工作以外的一面。这些活动应当真诚、不强迫，最初可能会觉得有些尴尬，但不要放弃。建立更深厚的人际联系，会让人感到自己被重视，而不是一种达到目的的手段。

Identify high-value ways to focus on people. 

Incorporate the feedback you receive to identify some regular practices to implement, such as having periodic career development conversations with direct reports, eliminating distractions during these conversations so you can actually focus on the other person, or having coffee with a colleague to get to know each other beyond work. These efforts should be genuine and not forced, even if you feel a bit awkward initially. Building deeper personal connections can make others feel valued, and not like a means to an end.

进行自我观察和反省

要在自己失去耐心或太着急的时候及时意识到。这样不仅能让你更加关注当下，还能改善自我觉察。问自己一些反思性的问题，理解自己的行为动机，比如“我想避免什么”“我为什么害怕慢下来”。

Engage in self-observation and reflection. 

Notice in real-time when you are being impatient or moving too fast. This provides an opportunity not only to be more present, but also to improve your self-awareness. Ask yourself reflective questions to help gain insights into what’s driving your behavior, such as “What am I trying to avoid?” or “What’s my fear in terms of slowing down?”

看清自己的狭隘之处

开展一些安全的试验，收集信息，证明驱使自己行为的观念太过局限。比如可以跟擅长平衡的人交流，了解他们是如何做到的，以及把握这种平衡的益处。

De-bunk your limiting beliefs. 

Create some safe experiments to collect information that disproves the limiting beliefs that are driving your behavior. This might include talking to others who are good at balancing task- and people-focus to gain some insight into how they do it and how this balance has contributed to their success.

练习自我管理

建立对当下的自我意识，让你能够停下来，选择不同的方式。比如可以选择不在周末发送一大堆关于重大项目的电子邮件，认可某位同事的努力，以及花点时间教某位团队成员学会一些新东西。

Practice self-management. 

Building greater self-awareness in the moment provides an opportunity to pause and choose a different approach. This might mean choosing not to send a slew of emails about your big project over the weekend, pausing to acknowledge a colleague’s effort, or taking the time to teach a team member something new.

当然，关注任务并取得成果，对于所有领导者、团队和组织的成功都至关重要，但如果未能与对人员的关注形成平衡，那么在每个层面的成功都会很有限。

To be sure, task-focus and achieving results are vital for any leader, team, or organization to succeed, but without a sufficient balance with people-focus, success will be limited at every level.