Leadership enables growth, or the other way around. Great leaders help create an environment of inspiration and empowerment; bad leaders create toxic environments that strain innovation and kill motivation. Whether you’re a startup CEO or leading a team in a large corporation, there’s nothing more important than knowing the qualities of a bad leader—not only to avoid being one, but to effectively identify and correct the bad leadership within your organization.
Let’s look at the 10 qualities of a bad leader everyone aspirational professional should avoid, or learn to hide from.
1. Inability to Follow Others
While this may seem obvious, one of the most overlooked qualities of a bad leader is that they are unwilling to follow. Good leadership often has to do with having been one yourself – to understand how it feels to be instructed and given feedback (and, yes, critical feedback). Bad leadership, on the other hand, has a distorted view of themselves and low empathy. This results in poor communication along with a lack of trust with other members of the team.
2. Feeding Pride and Vainglory
It is not about the spotlight. It’s about serving. One of the worst behaviors in leadership is too much pride and the need to be praised publicly. The impact of this behavior on the team will be lost, as will the anger that results. People quickly notice when a leader wants to be praised personally rather than for the team’s success.
3. Setting Unrealistic Expectations
Another common trait what makes a bad leader, is a habit of setting goals that are literally impossible to achieve. While desire is great, unrealistic targets can lead to frustration with their colleagues, employee burnout, and employee turnover. A good leader knows how to push a team but not push them beyond their limits.
4. Refusing to Accept Blame
True leaders take responsibility for things that happen under their control. A bad leader is quick to blame others while taking credit for success. It depletes team morale and creates a negative blame culture.
5. Avoiding Conflict
Conflict is inevitable in any workplace, but how leaders handle it determines whether a boss is a good leader or not. Needless to say, a boss who shies away from fixing things will allow resentment to fester, productivity to plummet, and a team bond to break down.
6. Focusing Only on Revenue
While profits are important, zero tolerance for the bottom line is one of the many terrible qualities a bad leader has. It’s far worse to ignore team health, career development, and organizational culture for ego’s sake.
7. Micromanaging
Bad leaders always have to be in charge of everything because they feel nobody else can do their job as well as they can. This kind of micromanagement shows a lack of trust in the team, causes negative emotions, and creates a bad atmosphere for innovation.
8. Failure to Encourage Team Members
There are two ways in which recognition and encouragement travel a long way towards boosting morale. Leaders who are mainly focusing on the wrong and ignoring the rights create an atmosphere that is discouraging. Poor leadership characteristics are usually premised on the argument that they cannot or will not provide positive resources.
9. Self-Center
Additionally, a poor leader prioritizes their own needs and image over those of the team. This, in turn, makes poor decisions and divides the team. The true leadership puts the team ahead in importance before the individual.
10. Doesn’t listen to feedback
Sadly, one of the traits with the top clear qualities of a bad leader is the failure to listen to co-concerned team members. Such feedback, especially the negative type, will only be found in the market of opportunity for development. However, one really clear trait of a bad leader is the unwillingness or inability to listen to any concern.
How Do You Avoid These Leadership Pitfalls?
Well, almost all leaders lead crappy lives. It does not serve a lifelong imprisonment for such poor leadership. Awareness may be the first step toward transformation. After identifying these ten points regarding being a bad leader in self or others, practical changes are possible. If you’re looking to lead more effectively and with agility, learn more from our guide on How to Be an Agile Leader.
Final Thoughts
At times, the poorest leadership can be costly, characterized by low morale, high turnover, missed opportunities, and a toxic workplace. Identification and avoidance of these poor leadership qualities would enhance one’s leadership development and lay a solid foundation for a high-performing, motivated, and successful team. Finally, if you’re leveling up along your business journey, don’t forget our reference to the 10 Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur.
Ready to build iconic leadership skills and lead with purpose? Get in touch with Dr. Ameet Parekh who can help you transform into a dynamic yet purpose-driven leader along your entrepreneurial journey. He has coached thousands of such entrepreneurs and professionals.