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Q: What is
lousy leadership?
Goran Milic,
Zagreb,
Croatia
A: Now,
why would you ask that question? Certainly not because you
want to be a lousy leader yourself!
It can
only be because you’re checking your instincts about
someone you know. Maybe even the person who signs your
paycheck.
And in
that, you’re not alone. We have written previously about
employees who are inveterate “boss haters”—one of our most
controversial commentaries, by the way—but we’ve never
given bad bosses their due. So herewith are a few of the
most familiar ways leaders can get it wrong, and too often
do.
The first,
and perhaps most frustrating, way that some people blow
leadership is by being know-it-alls. They can tell you how
the world works, what corporate is thinking, how it will
backfire if you try this or that and why you can’t change
the product one tiny iota. They even know what kind of car
you should be driving.
Sometimes,
these blowhards get their swagger from a few positive
experiences. But usually they’re just victims of their own
bad personalities. And you and your company are victims,
too. Because know-it-alls aren’t just insufferable,
they’re dangerous.
They don’t
listen, and that “deafness” makes it very hard for new
ideas to get heard, debated, expanded or improved. No
single person, no matter how smart, can take a business to
its apex. For that, you need every voice heard. And
know-it-all leadership creates a deadly silence.
If
know-it-alls are too much in your face, a second kind of
lousy leader is too little. We’re talking about
emotionally distant bosses—the type that are just more
comfortable behind closed doors than mucking it out with
the team.
Sure,
these remote leaders attend meetings and other requisite
functions, but they’d rather be staring into their
computers. And if possible, all the messy, sweaty people
stuff would be delegated to human resources managers on
another floor.
Like
know-it-alls, this breed of leader is dangerous, but for a
different reason. They don’t engage, which means they
can’t inspire. That’s a big problem. Leaders, after all,
need followers to get anything done. And followers need
passion for their fuel.
A third
category of lousy leadership is comprised of bosses who
are just plain jerks—nasty, bullying or insensitive, or
all three.
As a New
York reader wrote us recently, “My boss is abusive, by
which I mean disrespectful, finger-pointing and sometimes
even paranoid.” Such leaders are usually protected from
above because they deliver the numbers. But, with their
destructive personalities, they rarely win their people’s
trust.
That’s no
way to run a business, which is why these types of leaders
typically self-destruct. It’s never as quickly as you’d
hope. But unless they own the place, it does happen
eventually.
The next
type of lousy leadership is at the other end of the
spectrum: being too nice.
These
bosses have no edge, no capacity to make hard decisions.
They say yes to the last person in their office, and then
spend hours trying to clean up the confusion they’ve
created. Such bosses usually defend themselves by saying
they’re trying to build consensus. What they really are is
scared. Their real agenda is self-preservation—good old
CYA.
Which
leads to a final version of lousy leadership, which is not
unrelated—bosses who do not have the guts to
differentiate. The facts are, not all investment
opportunities are created equal. But some leaders can’t
face into that reality, and so they sprinkle their
resources like cheese on a pizza, a little bit everywhere.
As a
result, promising growth opportunities too often don’t get
the outsized infusions of cash and people they need. If
they did, someone might get offended during the resource
allocation process; someone—as in the manager of a weak
business or the sponsor of a dubious investment proposal.
But
leaders who don’t differentiate usually do the most damage
when it comes to people. Unwilling to deliver candid,
rigorous performance reviews, they give every employee the
same kind of bland, mushy, “nice job” sign off. And when
rewards are doled out, they give star performers not much
more than the laggards.
Now, you
can call this “egalitarian” approach kind or fair—and
these lousy leaders usually do—but it’s really just
weakness. And, when it comes to building a thriving
enterprise where people have an opportunity to grow and
succeed, weakness just doesn’t cut it.
Surely we
could go on, but we’ll end here with a caveat.
We hardly
expect lousy leaders to read this column and see
themselves. Part of being a lousy leader, no matter what
the category, is lack of self-awareness.
But if you
see your boss in the above groupings, take heart. When
it’s finally your turn to lead, you’ll know what not to
do.
*****
Jack
and Suzy Welch are the authors of the international
bestseller Winning (Collins). Their latest book is
Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest
Questions in Business Today (Collins). They are eager to
hear about your career dilemmas and challenges at work and
look forward to answering your questions in future
columns. You can e-mail them questions at winning@nytimes.com.
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