10 Qualities of a Bad Leader
Your followers probably resent you if these apply to you.
A study by Culture Amp showed that a lack of quality leadership is why one out of three people leave their jobs.
The thing about leadership is that it doesn’t take a whole lot of bad traits to make you an ineffective leader.
You can have many good traits, but one extremely weak one can sabotage your leadership efforts.
So if any of these apply to you, work on patching those up first. Often “stopping the bleeding” in your leadership skills can make a drastic improvement to the quality of leader you are.
#1. They take the credit but not blame
A bad leader doesn’t take full responsibility for everything that happens under them whether they had control over it or not.
They blame other people, their team, or other things for failures. Never themselves.
They need to take full responsibility for the failures of their team and give full credit to their team for the successes.
“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” — Nelson Mandela
#2. They are indecisive
Indecision is OK if you are still weighing options, but riding the fence for fear of “what-ifs” for too long can breed doubt about your leadership ability in your followers.
Even if you make a decision and your followers don’t agree with your judgment, at least you decided. This is better than not deciding.
That being said if you decide you made the wrong decision, don’t be too proud to admit your mistake and reverse it. This will be respected.
Either way, act.
“The one word that makes a good manager — decisiveness.” -Lee Iacocca
#3. They don’t lead by example
This one should be easy to do. Never said “do as I say, not as I do.” Say “do as I do.” Your followers will follow your example.
Leading by example is perhaps the greatest leadership principle.
Don’t just say it. Be it.
“What you are speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you are saying.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
#4. They don’t take initiative
If you are one of those leaders always waiting for your boss, followers, or someone else to tell you what to do, change that.
If you have a bad boss or board who micro-manages, maybe this is tough to do as they may have already squashed your initiative.
But un-squash it.
Just do something.
Your followers (and your competent leaders) will respect that because that’s what a real leader does.
“The real damper on employee engagement is the soggy, cold blanket of centralized authority. In most companies, power cascades downwards from the CEO. Not only are employees disenfranchised from most policy decisions, they lack even the power to rebel against egocentric and tyrannical supervisors.” — Gary Hamel, management expert
#5. They don’t listen
If your team has a recommendation and it doesn’t absolutely need to be tweaked, run with it as they suggest! That’s how you inspire creative problem solving and motivate your employees.
Don’t feel the need to put your own twist or stamp on your people’s good ideas just so you can have some ownership of it.
Listen if your employees are telling you something, assuming it’s a legitimate comment and not just someone complaining because they are a complainer.
Not listening to them when they have something real to say is a sure path to resentment.
“Of all the skills of leadership, listening is the most valuable — and one of the least understood. Most captains of industry listen only sometimes, and they remain ordinary leaders. But a few, the great ones, never stop listening. That’s how they get word before anyone else of unseen problems and opportunities.”— Peter Nulty, Fortune Magazine
6. They micromanage
There’s no better way to kill initiative and creative thinking in your employees than getting in their way by thinking and creating for them.
Stay out of your people’s way and trust them to do their job. You must learn to delegate and trust.
“Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.”-Steve Jobs
7. They lack enthusiasm
Why should your employees care if you don’t? Even if you aren’t thrilled with what you are doing, you should be enthusiastic about successfully completing the mission you and your team have.
If you are going to do something, do it the best you can. This includes having an enthusiastic attitude about doing your best.
“When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” -Simon Sinek
8. They lack integrity
Integrity is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.” This is key to long term leadership success.
The quality of the person you are is directly proportionate to your team’s success.
“Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others, as what he does from day to day to lead himself.” Thomas J. Watson
9. They don’t appreciate humor
Humor is one of the most powerful tools for relieving stress, thus increasing productivity. You may not be a comedian but you can allow for some humor in your work.
It makes your team happier and more willing to work with you.
“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
“There is little success where there is little laughter.” - Andrew Carnegie
10. They don’t fight for their employees
I once had a boss who did all in his power to get us the very most compensation/bonuses/raises possible. He’d fight for us constantly and we knew it. Managers ARE supposed to watch the bottom line and have a duty to get the most output financially with the least input, but he saw his job as taking care of us and our families as a higher priority.
That attitude greatly increased the bottom line for corporate because we worked as hard as we could for him and produced at our top potential.
“Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first.” - Angela Ahrendts (Senior Vice President, Apple)
So, do any of these weak qualities apply to you?
If so, the good news is you can patch up your worst ones first. The quality of leader you are is strengthened greatly when you drop the very worst habits.
All leadership is learned. Bad habits can be fixed. YOU can become an excellent leader if you use the above traits as your “to-don’t” list.
Go get ’em boss!
