Are you a Diaper Leader?

Diapers may very well be far the most expensive item on the list of raising a toddler.

All kinds of research out there point to hundreds of thousands of naira if you add it up and that’s only in the first year.

So it doesn’t seem strange when parents celebrate having potty trained kids which heralds the end of their diaper purchasing era and hello! Savings.

It’s an inevitable phase which is expected but can you imagine not being able to transition to that phase at the right time? Or being stuck in it for longer than anticipated? Or just resigned to the fate of not having to transition from that phase at all?

That’s the approach some employees have had to put their organisations through by being diaper supervisors, managers or leaders!

A diaper leader is that someone who has been invested in and grown through the ranks of leadership in an organisation but still remains on the “let’s not talk about his/her leadership style” list during water cooler conversations.

It’s that leader who now manages people but still acts as an independent contributor and clueless about how to be a good people manager but too proud to ask how.

Diaper leaders usually live in fools’ paradise because in all sincerity, most do not ever see that they need some fine-tuning.

For some, their work speaks for them so they get away with this seemingly bad behaviour.  Some businesses even aid and abet by not calling them out or making a judgement call. Once organisations ignore diaper leadership behaviour or don’t consider it during performance evaluations, they spread the inbreeding of more diaper leaders. A grim picture for the leadership bench of that organisation.

All diaper leaders no matter the contribution to the bottom line, still make a mess which is usually not quantified enough in naira or dollar terms.

If you’re that leader who has the highest turnover rate per department you’re a diaper leader. If you’re the CEO who can’t seem to be able to get people to give you feedback, you’re a diaper leader. If you’re the “Georgie Porgie” leader like in the popular children’s rhyme who makes the girls and boys cry you’re not “hard”, you’re a diaper leader.

Diaper leaders actually spread across a continuum. More tilted to the autocratic style, they are the ones who make decisions with little or no involvement of subordinates and really don’t care whose ox is gored. In the long run those types of actions are counterproductive to team effectiveness and organisation development. Not to talk of the chance of passing on bad leadership traits to up and coming leaders who may or may not look up to the fellow in question.

“Diaper backward spells repaid. Think about it” – Marshall McLuhan

Are you still a diaper leader? Don’t be full of crap. Make efforts to potty train and transition.

Ngozi Adebiyi