“These are the gravest of bad leaders. One of the aims of leadership is to build confidence. You cannot constitute trust with others when they are afraid of you
Henry Johnson LR
1. Bad Leaders blame (condemn) people they lead
Bad leaders are excellent at throwing people under the bus. They are quick to throw blames on their subjects. A leader’s task is to protect and grow those she/he leads. A leader should never publicly blame others for things that have gone wrong. As a leader, you should always be a single point of accountability.
That does not mean that you shouldn’t have various private discussions with the people involved to create a plan of prevention. However, you should never publicly condemn or convicts anyone but have a reflection of self, on how to move forward. Bad leaders blame their teams, and if we are talking country, they blame the opposition for the country’s problems. And sometimes they go as far as to blame race, ethnicity, tribes, etc. As leaders, our essential job is to own whatever crisis that we inherited, and to work hard and make it better.
2. Bad leaders lead by fear
These are the gravest of bad leaders. One of the aims of leadership is to build confidence. You cannot constitute trust with others when they are afraid of you. What occurs? A mess of declining team performance, or if we are talking country, a broken economy with the opposition living in fear due to the low self-esteem of the leader. When any leader leads in fear, team members stop giving the leader essential erudition required to succeed.
A leader who fundamentally ‘rules’ with fear is one of the most lethal people in any country or organization of any size. Their fears can unfold like wildfire and prompt overall disorder — mainly due to the lack of communication of vital information. Leading with fear disempowers. Fear-based leadership shifts subjects or workers’ consciousness inward instead of outward.
Leading with fear blocks the idea of “respect.” The lack of respect constitutes a more secondary empowerment atmosphere. Respect empowers. With respect, while in leadership, you come to make those around you comfortable and better. And with that being said, communications tend to becomes the way to success. But, without, the idea of leading with fear kills communications and disrupts progress.
3. Bad Leaders have no desire to lead
Many people do things for the obverse reasons in their professions, including acquiring a leadership position. Many experts acquire a leadership post for the wrong reasons. Conclusively, they are not only bad leaders; they never develop into having a self-reflection. The question, “what am I doing wrong to move the team forward or my countries forward?” More importantly, they are not content as leaders. Being enlightened and having self-reflection episodes as a leader is a blueprint for maturing victorious in leadership. So, it is always great to evaluate your ‘whys’ in desiring to be a leader.
4. The lack of clear expectations
The setting, revising, and articulating clear expectations is indispensable to team achievement. Bad leaders tend to convey mixed messages on pre-eminence. In an ever-changing world, clear expectations drive success, and it is vital during times of transformation.
5. Bad leaders are hypocrites
If your mantra and leadership characteristic are “do as I say; not as I do,” you will have a hard time inspiring people towards achieving team goals. Great leaders lead by example and treat others consistently, but personally. Never go the path of attempting to systematize behavior, as it only shifts into a total disaster. People are not tools, but simply people, and as a leader, you must treat them as such.
6. Bad Leaders are Undemocratic
Being secretive with the subjects that you lead is the downfall of any leader. The idea of not everyone needs to know everything, but not everyone wants to what you know either is dangerous. If more of the people that you lead know you are keeping something a secret, the less they will come to trust you. Great leaders believe in sharing pieces of information. Most bad leaders LOVE to put on a show that they know something that YOU want to know or do not know.
For them, they’ll try their possible best for you to never know as long as they are in a leadership position. As a leader, we must always be open and impartial within confidentiality measures. Transparency is the key to successful leadership. You must always be willing to share the right information with the people that you lead at the right time.
7. Bad Leaders are invisible
Bad leaders lurk behind closed doors. When citizens don’t know who their leader is, a problem arises. As a leader, you must always be visible, not invisible! Be accessible, not inaccessible!
1. Talk to the people that you lead.
2. Come down from your high horse and eat with the people that you lead.
3. Listen to the people that you lead.
4. When they call, answer, be seen, not hidden!
5. Put the well-being of the people that you lead first. Make it a priority, and always listens to their queries, not push them away.
6. Be open-minded, not closed off.
