Status Quo Leaders Ride a Company to the Bottom
Status quo leadership is the art of managing a business the way it always has been managed, even when major change is necessary for survival.
It’s the kind of leadership that drives a company and even an industry into extinction. Status quo leaders are the exact opposite of change leaders. Managers who recognize and understand status quo thinking will learn critical behaviors to embrace and others to avoid.
A successful status quo leader is not necessarily a contradiction in terms. Effective executives often have many of the traits for successful leadership at a certain place and time that help them reach the top of an organization. They are:
- Intelligent
- Energetic
- Ambitious
- Highly educated
Many of them have a deep understanding and sometimes lengthy experience at the organization they lead. Most importantly, a successful status quo leader protects the core business while carefully guiding the changes necessary for long-term survival of the company.
Beware the status quo trap
Any leader who tries to protect the status quo is risking a potential trap: Everything they know about the business and how to run it is based on the past and not the…
