[September 6, 2015] One of the very first things I was taught as a leader of soldiers was that I had only a few key responsibilities; one of them was to provide the appropriate resources for our troops. But what I was to discover later was that those same leaders were applying selective neglect by purposefully withholding resources and information from their soldiers. Why was this the case and what was the impact?
“Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.” – J.K. Rowling
When I originally wrote this blog entry, I wanted to include selective neglect of certain laws and regulations but that will have to wait for another day. Today I will focus on what I originally thought was the lazy application of leader responsibilities but have come to believe that the selective neglect of our soldiers, or in the case of other leaders their followers, and the insidiousness of it deserves special attention.
I first became aware of selective neglect as an Army Platoon Leader. My commander personally disliked his junior officers and, with a firm resolve, would not inform them of career enhancing opportunities and helpful information that would make their jobs easier. Sadly, most people would be shocked to discover this is actually a common practice. There are leaders that employ neglect to hold back resources in ways that are difficult to detect.
However, I believe that most leaders would agree that their leadership can be measured by how well all those who follow them perform on the tasks assigned to them. This is not the case with those who employ selective neglect. There are a variety of reasons used by such a neglectful leader; animosity toward certain people, a disposition to be intellectually lazy, or a nasty trait of general hostility.
The effect of this selective neglect is that success is less likely to occur in those who experience the selective neglect and will succeed only with greater difficulty. The epitome of a good leader is one who can rally all people to a good cause; those who use selective neglect are defeating any possibility of cohesion and are encouraging divisiveness.
Beware of leaders who use selective neglect. They are hard to ferret out and by the time they are discovered, damage has been done. Loss of trust and credibility of leaders will occur. In short, there will be no winners.
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