Can we understand what good leadership looks like by thinking about what bad leadership looks like? So many times, coachees have confided in me their experiences of bad managers and how that has guided them in their roles as managers to be a different type of manager for their team.
So what does bad leadership look like? We’ve probably all experienced it to some degree. If you haven't, you’ve been lucky! Bad leadership can come in two main forms – incompetent leadership and unethical leadership. Within this there are several variations on how bad leadership is expressed.
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Incompetent leaders can be annoying and result in stagnation of the organisation and a de-motivated team; but they are not dangerous in the way that unethical leaders are. Unethical leaders cannot distinguish the difference between right and wrong and can cause deep and permanent harm to people, society and the environment.
If you are in an environment with an unethical leader my only advice would be to leave as soon as you can. Incompetent leaders, in most cases can be trained up and can shift their mindset and up-skill. Unethical leaders on the other hand are very hard to change and as a follower you would be wasting your time and energy trying! With unethical leaders you can unwittingly get caught up in their bad behaviour and become involved in something much bigger than yourself that brings harm to others or is illegal.
Note – thanks to Mark Huges (Managing Change) for these labels of bad leaders. The descriptions and examples are my own.
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