Today we're diving into an advanced leadership topic. How to spot and stop sabotaging behavior in your leadership team.
This is something every leader must pay attention to because if left unchecked, it can destroy your team dynamics, it can create dysfunction, and it can absolutely derail progress. All of this is coming up next.
Welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.
Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are. Today we're going to discuss how to spot and stop sabotaging behavior in your leadership team.
But before we get into all of this, I'm going to say, as always, start with you. One of the most important things you can do is always look at you first to ask yourself the question, am I the problem?
Am I the issue? So that's where we're going to start. I'm going to walk you through five key areas to recognize these behaviors and more importantly, how to stop them.
So by the time we get done, you'll have some practical steps to improve your leadership as well as create a much healthier, high functioning team. So let's jump in.
Start with Yourself: Are You the Sabotager? (00:01:30)
The first thing we have to do, and you will hear me say this forever, is we always have to start with ourselves.
Start with you. Is it possible that you are the sabotager? I should say that a fun French way sabotager. I don't know. If you want to lead a strong team, if you want your team to be unified, then you have to start by first evaluating yourself.
Sometimes the biggest source of dysfunction isn't a team member. Sometimes it's the leader and we may not even recognize it. Well, Chris, I don't think it could be me.
Well, let's take a look at some potential common self sabotaging behaviors. How about micromanaging? How about avoiding tough conversations? What about refusing to delegate?
What about playing favorites or reacting emotionally instead of leading with wisdom? I know you've never experienced any of those. Me too. I've. I've never had any issues in any of those areas. So there you go. We're done with that. It's not us. No, listen.
Sometimes a business owner can constantly do something like redoing the work of the team member. Right. If you've not learned how to properly delegate, then there's a really good chance somebody's not doing something the way that you want them to.
So you step in and you redo their work. This, you know, why do we do that? Because oftentimes A person thinks, well, nobody can do it as. As well as I can.
Here's the problem. This crushes team morale. It creates frustration in the team. It creates frustration in the individual who now feels like they're colossal failure in your eyes, that they're disappointing you.
They can't do anything right. It creates a bunch of issues. You might be doing exactly that. The problem is, is that what if it is you? What if you're doing any of the things that I listed?
What if you're not aware? What do you do about that? Well, do yourself a favor and get feedback. Get feedback from your team. Talk to. My caveat is always this. Try and talk to the healthiest people.
If you're going to get feedback right, ask a mentor, ask a coach, ask a trusted advisor as well. You know, help get people that can help you to see blind spots.
If you recognize these behaviors in yourself, then it's time to do the work, whether through coaching, counseling, leadership development, whatever it takes to get rid of those behaviors.
And I'm telling you, it is just a lack of proper coaching. You've not been trained how not to do it that way.
It's the same thing that you're going to be doing with your leaders if you find it in your leadership team or even if you find it in your team, right, is lead them to success. So start with you. Get some quality input. Is it possibly you?
If it is, what are we going to do about this? You know, get healthy people to respond. If you've got a toxic person on your team and you ask them if you know, if you're sabotaging things, then the answer 100% of the time is going to be yes.
You know, no ifs, ands or buts about it, right? It will always be yes. So make sure that you get quality information from quality people.
And if it is, if it's something you're doing, then you probably already know some of the things that you're already doing. But if it is you doing it, let's get this fixed.
Recognizing Sabotaging Behavior in Your Team (00:05:05)
Number two, recognize sabotaging behavior in your team. Now, if you're clear on your own role and behaviors, then it's time starting there, starting with you, going through you first before you jump to the team, find out if it's you.
Once you're clear of your own behaviors, then it's time to start looking at your leadership team. What patterns are showing up that kind of disrupt progress?
You know, some of the common things that we see in leaders is passive aggressiveness. You might see gossip you might see, a lot of times, you actually might see withholding information.
You might see leaders avoiding accountability. You might see a leader who's absolutely resisting necessary change.
All of these things are sabotaging your team. They're sabotaging that leader. They're sabotaging possibly the leadership team and is definitely sabotaging the team that they lead.
So think of a department head who will not share critical data because they want to maintain control rather than work collaboratively.
You might see that between leaders, you know, one leader is not sharing information with another leader because they feel the need to be in control.
Well, that's sabotage, folks. That's going to slow down your projects. It's going to create silos.
It's going to create a big lack of trust because believe it or not, other people are going to recognize, I know this person has this information, but they're not doing anything about it.
They're not sharing it with me. So now I don't trust them, right? And I don't want to work with them because they're being a pain in the butt.
I know you've been there, right? So you must first be aware of the behaviors before you can address them. You've got to take a hard look inside of your team.
Be aware of how they're responding to things, what they're doing. As you see this, if you're not sure what to look for, then, you know, it might be a great idea to bring in outside expert to assess, you know, the leadership dynamics that you have.
And definitely in an objective way. That's one of the things I do love about doing strap plan is that, you know, I get to not be so blinkered, I get to not be emotionally handcuffed.
I get to look at things from that outside perspective and reveal things that the entire team is missing. So make sure that you're getting that information, even if it comes from an outside source.
Just make sure, again, caveat always, that it's somebody who's healthy, somebody who can that that is not emotionally handcuffed to the situation or doesn't want to, you know, I know sounds crazy, but hurt anybody involved.
And sometimes you're going to find some of those folks.
Addressing the Issue: The Importance of Communication (00:07:56)
So number three, addressing the issue, by far the biggest importance is communication. You know, once you've identified sabotaging behaviors, the next step is you have to address them head on.
And it's got to be direct and it's got to be with effective communication. Now you might be sitting there thinking, oh crud, conflict. The, the thing I want to avoid. Well, that's going to be a sabotaging behavior right there, right?
If we don't shut this down, what will shut it down? If we don't stop this, what's going to stop this? So have one-on-one conversations. Make sure that you ask a freaking question.
Focus on solutions rather than accusations. Get in there. You know, ask questions about why they do stuff.
Instead of saying something like you're being passive aggressive, maybe you could say, hey, I've noticed that when we discuss new initiatives, you often say it will work, but you don't give any alternatives to it.
You're not offering up anything that we can do differently. Is it possible that we can look for solutions instead of just saying that something won't work? Right.
Help them to get to that place, help them to think like that. Your goal should be to bring clarity, not conflict. So if you don't feel equipped to handle tough conversations, get coaching on communication strategies.
It's vitally important if you're going to handle this well. If you're going to do this right, make sure that you're equipped to do this. If you have not been, then get some quality coaching on exactly what to do.
Providing the Right Support for Growth (00:09:34)
Number four, make sure that you're providing the right support for growth. So not every sabotaging behavior is intentional. Sometimes leaders act out of insecurity.
Maybe they, they act out of a lack of awareness that I'll tell you, a lot of times they're acting out of fear. A lot of times leaders are struggling with fear.
And so the sabotaging that they're doing, it's not like they're intentionally going, you know, sometimes it is, sometimes they're intentionally saying, I want to control this, I don't want to let go of this.
I'm going to hold back information, I'm going to fill in the blank, do whatever. But a lot of the time it's just out of insecurity. It's out of a struggle somewhere, right?
So identify if the person needs coaching, mentoring, training, whatever, personal development or counseling. If it's somebody who's struggling with heavy control, then they probably need a different approach to discover why that control exists.
What's the thing that is holding them back? What's the reason why they're struggling with control issues? Why are they trying to control something?
You know, it's, it's highly likely that you're probably not in a position to lead that aspect really well. Maybe you are. If you are, great, have at it.
But just understand our goal is to not with conflict but to get to resolution the best way we possibly can. And most of the time, it's somebody who just needs some great coaching.
It's somebody who just needs to be taught how to look at things differently. So think of somebody who resists accountability, you know, that they may need support in developing their confidence.
Maybe the lack of accountability is a confidence issue. You've heard me talk about this before, many times.
That that pushback on accountability is because they don't want it, because they may get found out, they may be doing something wrong, or maybe they're not working hard at all.
You know, there's many ors in this, right? You know, or, or, or. But sometimes it may be somebody who just doesn't have confidence. Maybe they don't have confidence in the ownership of role.
So it's important to spend time digging in, find out what's going on and guide them to the best option. Right?
So investing in leadership growth programs is powerful. I can't tell you how many folks come through our mentoring, our coaching, and find themselves in situations of having tough conversations and it is a thousand times easier than they anticipated.
And the practice that they put in place solves it where they're not struggling with it anymore. And that allows them to build confidence, which allows them to not sabotage in the process.
So a good quality coaching program can change everything. Right?
Invest in your leader's growth. Don't just discipline them. Equip your leaders with what they need so that they can mature and overcome the unhealthy behaviors that they're experiencing themselves.
Creating a Culture That Prevents Sabotaging Behavior (00:12:46)
Number five, this is a big one. All of these are big ones. But you have to focus beyond just the individual. You have to focus on creating a culture that prevents sabotaging behavior.
So if you want to have long term success, you have to be incredibly intentional. You have to build a team culture where sabotage cannot thrive.
So instead of allowing it to thrive and putting out the fire every single time it happens, you need to do something to make sure that it can't thrive, that you're doing something intentionally to fix your culture in a way that it gets called out, that it gets revealed, that people see it, that people know when it's happening.
Healthy accountability, transparent communication, clear expectations, all of these things are going to lead to a culture that does not allow sabotage or at least doesn't allow it for very long. Right.
So what does that look like? Well, healthy accountability is one of the biggest things. You've got to have healthy accountability in place, you've got to have transparent communication.
You have to have clear expectations, you got to have alignment with the company core values.
If people don't understand and accept and take on the company's core values, then their decisions are not going to be based on the company core values. Right.
If we don't have healthy accountability, then people know that they're going to be able to get away with whatever or you know, they can sabotage.
Not again, not intentionally, not trying to be sabotaging, but they're going to struggle because nobody is holding them accountable to being healthy.
So all of these things are vitally important to creating that culture that stops sabotaging behavior, right. That prevents it from happening in the future.
It's amazing that companies that implement strong team alignment processes, I mean strong ones, right, where we're not just putting somebody in place and then saying, hey, go do the job.
We're making sure that we're intentionally aligning them to the core values, aligning them to a healthy accountability, putting accountability in on team roles, on everything, on processes.
When companies implement that regular check ins, feedback loops, leadership development programs, then they see considerably less dysfunction.
I'm not saying you're going to 100% get rid of it, but man, you can get way up there. Our team just kills it on a consistent basis.
We don't see much dysfunction in our team at all because we work on these things all the time. The stuff I'm teaching you is the stuff that we do, we do this stuff we make.
I used to work at a place years ago, I had a leader who was asking me to do something. We were teaching something, this is a long time ago.
And I said, well, no, but I'm not going to do that because that would not be truth. And this guy's response was, and it's not who you think it is. If you're thinking it's somebody famous, that's not who it is.
This guy's response was, we don't actually do what we're teaching. We're just teaching this. And I was shocked. I was blown away. I could not believe those words came out of this person's mouth.
And I'm sorry, I have too much integrity. That's not something I'm going to do. If I'm, if I'm teaching it to you, I'm doing it right. So if sabotage keeps happening, then you've got to take a look at the systems.
What are the processes that you have in place? What's the culture that you've built? Is it encouraging teamwork or is it encouraging or enabling dysfunction?
What does your culture look like? What are your core values? Do people operate under your core values? Do people understand your mission? Do they understand what accountability is?
Do they have accountability through things like KRAs and accountability through processes? Do they have accountability through leadership team meetings, one on one meetings?
Do they see that there's accountability being held to everybody in the business, including leadership? If things aren't working well, if you are seeing sabotaging behaviors, then the first place to start is with you.
Check out your leadership team, check out your culture, solve these things, prevent sabotaging behavior from happening, period.
The sooner you do this, and by the way, when it does pop up in the future, when you have a culture that prevents sabotaging behavior, when it does pop up, it's shot down quickly.
The people that are living inside of your culture, those people that are working with you, I have team members that have been with me for years and years and years.
They are able to be vulnerable when if they sabotage some way for me, I will call myself out if I'm sabotaging in some sort of way and just say, oh, guys, I'm sorry, here's what I'm doing, here's what just happened.
Because we live in this culture that allows people to trust that everybody else has their best interest at heart. It allows them to trust that they can be vulnerable.
It allows them to trust that nobody's going to take them down a notch or try to hurt them or, or use something against them.
So if you are experiencing that you have sabotaging behaviors inside of your culture, then it's probably because people don't feel like they can actually be vulnerable.
So make sure you've got that healthy accountability, big piece. Make sure that you have high levels of quality communication, transparent communication, clear expectations and definitely alignment with core values.
Action Steps (00:18:42)
So what can you do today? Chris, this is all great information. Where do I start? Here's your action steps. First thing I want you to do is I want you to evaluate yourself. Are you unknowingly sabotaging your team? Get feedback from trusted people.
You probably have some good team members on your team that will tell you some truth and aren't going to try and take advantage of you, aren't going to try and take you down a notch.
Get some trusted advisors or coaches. If you don't have these people in your life, why do something about it?
Get quality coaches in your life that can lead you to success. Number two, identify sabotaging behaviors in your team, in your leadership team.
Make sure that you're paying attention to patterns that disrupt collaboration and progress. Look at what's happening, Find out what's happening.
Ask important questions, dig in, don't accuse. Help them to get to vulnerability. Help them to trust that you're not going to rip their head off and, you know, hurt them in any, any kind of way.
That you're not just going to pummel them and not help them to get to good quality growth and solve this stuff, right?
So be looking to find it. And when you do, treat people the way that you would want to be treated, treat people the way you would want your kids to be treated in somebody else's business, right?
Number three, have the right conversations. You need to be using clear, direct communication to address the issues and make sure that you don't just address the issues, but refocus the issues onto solutions.
Solutions are what we are looking for, not just to address it. We want to address it, we've got to get to it. But how do we fix this? If all you do is tell somebody that they're screwing up, that's not going to actually solve anything, right?
That's probably going to bring a decent amount of fear of failure. That's probably going to bring an even greater amount of insecurity to that person.
You're probably going to see, you're going to compound the sabotaging behaviors by doing so. So instead, after you've analyzed it, after you've discovered it, let's get to some quality solutions.
Number four, this is big. Make sure that you're providing the right support. Folks, I have coaches in my life. I have mentors in my life. I have people that guide and direct me in areas that I'm not strong in.
I have experts that guide and direct me in areas I want to grow in. You need to have for your leaders, if you want them to grow, rather than just staying where they are and pointing out their flaws, you need to invest in them.
Having quality leadership training. As John Maxwell, who said, would you rather pour into your people and they leave with the, you know, the expertise that you've poured into them with or not pour into your people and they stay because that's what people are afraid.
Well, if I spend this money, what if they leave? Oh, my gosh. If you don't, then they stay exactly how they are. Get your people, get your leaders proper growth training, proper health, proper coaching, proper mentoring.
Number five, focus heavy on building a strong culture. Ensure that you have accountability in place. Make sure that you're aligning people to your core values, your mission, the vision, the direction that we're headed in.
Make sure people are aligned so that you could prevent sabotaging in the future. Folks, if you will do these pieces and I know this is a lot of work. There's a lot that you have to do.
You have to spend time, you have to be intentional. You have to make sure you're practicing these things.
Practice having these discussions, practice looking for it, practice evaluating yourself. Practice putting in the proper training, coaching, mentoring to get people to the right place.
Additional Resources (00:23:03)
Now some additional resources that I have for you is the episode 617 which is The High Cost of Avoiding Accountability in Your Leadership Team. This is a must listen to.
So we talk about leadership team dysfunction and how to address it. And these two episodes, today's episode and that episode go hand in hand, folks. Sabotaging behavior can absolutely feel like it's a hidden enemy within your leadership team.
You probably have already noticed it. You probably have some of the things on your mind. I just gave you a couple of examples. There's a ton more. You've probably experienced that.
But the good news is that once you recognize it and take the right steps, you can transform your team dynamics and create an organization that runs smoothly, an organization that runs successfully.
And as always, if you need help evaluating and improving your leadership team, reach out to us at the point.
Main group, we're here to help. We're here to help you create a healthier, stronger team that drives to success. Well, folks, that's all the time that we have for today.
I really hope that you found this super valuable and are recognizing the need to put all of this in place. As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life and join us on the next episode.
