These are questions that I hear quite frequently in my role as a coach who provides consulting services for leaders. And they are absolutely legitimate, since regrettably, various studies show that a large contingent of colleagues in companies are either not motivated or even actively demotivated.

Not motivated means: I do what I have to do to avoid having problems. Work-to-rule, you might say. Actively demotivated means: I take my own demotivation a step further and also spread a negative mood, create negative impulses, drag others down into demotivation with me. Neither is very beneficial, but regrettably, both are often the order of the day.

Why Aren’t My Colleagues Motivated?

Surveys show that almost half of leaders – from the point of view of the individuals that are “led”– do an inadequate job. The fact is, employees often join a company because of interesting, challenging assignments and the potential for development. But at some point they regrettably leave their supervisor because it’s no longer working for them on a personal level.

It Is Frequently Relationship Issues That Lead to a Separation

In order to be successful as a leader and able to lead effectively over the long run, you need a mix of four different areas of competence. 

4 Areas of Competence for Successful Leaders

1. Subject Matter Competence. This should be a basic prerequisite.
2. Methodological Competence. The ability to sensibly and properly approach an issue, a challenge, or a situation.
3. Social Competence or Relational Competence. The ability to establish contact with others, build trusting and lasting relationships, and maintain them even under difficult circumstances.
4. Self-Competence. This means competence in handling oneself and one’s own resources. This involves self-knowledge: Where do your strengths lie? What are your core competencies? When do you reach the point where the ice gets too thin for you? It is a matter of self-awareness, for one thing. But it is equally an ability to recognize in a timely fashion whether you are, for example, running into an overload situation.

But: Not All of the Four Competencies Can Be Rated as Equals

The higher you climb in the hierarchy, the less relevant subject matter expertise becomes. At the level of team leadership, it certainly remains very relevant and important, because you still have to be able to support your team with technical expertise. When you move up within a department to become leaders of a department or of a division or a company executive, the relevance of subject matter expertise tends to decline or be replaced with other subject matter competencies.

But the other three areas of competence – methodological, social, and self-competence – grow in importance as you step into a leadership role. This is self-evident, because it’s all about managing people and collaborating with people.

Self-competence is especially important because, as a supervisor, you can only lead effectively if you yourself maintain balance and if you stay in touch with yourself.

How Are “Bad” Leaders Formed?

In many cases, switching into a leadership role corresponds closely to switching into a career with different job specifications. Today, many individuals are still being made leaders and promoted into leadership roles based on their previous successes in their areas of expertise and their technical competence. Yet in the new role, this competence tends to be the least relevant.

Systematically Developing Leadership Skills

At the same time, the other three areas of competence are underdeveloped. This leads to a situation in which leaders, especially young leaders, are completely overextended with duties in their first leadership role, because the necessary competencies are not developed, and because they are not shown how leadership can be done and how effective leadership works. It doesn’t have to be this way. The antidote or prescription for this is: systematic development of leadership skills.

2 Approaches That Facilitate the Transition into Leadership Positions

1. Transition Coaching

By way of example, I work for companies in which every individual who is promoted into a leadership role receives “transition coaching” and consulting services for the first six months of the leadership role. This is done automatically, as a matter of course. Consequently, mistakes are avoided and, as a rule, these leaders succeed in having a really good start.

2. Selection

Another important approach is the selection or recruitment of new or future leaders. When selecting from within the company, it is essential to ask: Who will be selected for new leadership roles and on what are we basing the selection of these individuals? Do we base it on subject matter expertise, or, in order to choose the right individuals, do we already take into account the areas of competence that will be needed in the future? The best technical expert will not necessarily make the best leader. By choosing this person, you might in the worst case lose the frontrunner among your experts and, in his or her place, gain an average or perhaps even an overextended and frustrated leader. When recruiting outside of the company, it is also imperative that you make the right choice with an eye toward the future role and future needs.

I hope that, with this impetus, you increase your personal effectiveness and really take off.