Horrible Bosses: 10 Signs you’re Dealing with Poor Leadership
The truth is we spend more time in our workplaces than we do with our families. So, being in your workplace shouldn’t be like experiencing the seven rings of hell.
I mean be real, it is work. Even though, I love my work, I love time with my family more. When you talk about work, you should be able to talk more about the highs than you do the lows. Although, due to poor leadership, this is not the standard of normal- I do hope with awareness and the push for leadership development; through coaching, workshops and programs, this soon could be what the new standard of normal is.
So, I have composed a list of 10 signs that you are dealing with a poor leader or you yourself might be this poor leader. If you recognize any of these in yourself or have heard complaints that have been about you, you can make changes and remove those traits just by learning and gaining new or improved skills.
Horrible Bosses: 10 Signs you’re Dealing with Poor Leadership
1. Lacks clear vision and passion
People love to follow those people who have a clear vision and passion. They struggle when the vision is blurred and passion runs hot and cold.
2. Leader who doesn’t see the need to grow
This is either as an individual or as a team. A poor leader doesn’t see the need to grow as a positive or even as ambitious. They may actually see this as a threat, and may perceive this as you have outgrown your role on their team.
Whereas, a good strong leader will aspire to have a team that is interested in personal growth and development. Therefore, allowing them to bring fresh knowledge and perspective to the team and to the business.
3. Never stops to explain the “Why”
These are the leaders who are of the mindset of “Just do it, because I said so”. Many times those that have questioned the “Why” are dismissed from the team. The ones not comfortable with the “Why” stay quiet and just go along with it, but this type of leader leaves this team scared and confused. Then just following orders- is just the norm.
4. Takes the credit and the praise for your hard work.
There is nothing more defeating and deflating to a team or individual when their hard work and efforts are dismissed and not recognized as their efforts. It is hard to watch those with poor leadership take the praise and often times the promotion with benefits for something they did not do. The leaders general attitude is; “that is what I hired you for”. Although, with the occasional shout out of good job for you- mostly holding the praise and congratulations for themselves.
5. Favoritism
Oh I am sure if you ever spent the day in the workforce, you have run across this a time or two. The leaders who play team members against each other and use it for deliberate tactics.
It’s a horrific mind and emotional game nonetheless. It divides and causes difficulties in the workplace. As well, as leaving workers with a feeling of great injustice and diminishes self-esteem.
6. Never giving positive feedback
The negative bias boss-The one who only has eyes for what went wrong. You just shuttered if you have ever experienced this, and I have a suspicion you have. These are the leaders who can’t ever see what went right. These leaders feed the fears of the team, and the team afraid to make any mistakes. This causes lack of motivation and enthusiasm. This usually also leads to low morale and high turnover in staff.
7. Doesn’t recognize skills or expertise.
Poor leadership exists in a boss who is afraid to recognize their team is smart and knowledgeable, and even knows more than they do. Fact is, most leaders don’t understand the full roles of their team takes on. But being the leader in their minds means they know it all or better than the team. This is not fact- the “be all- know all leaders” will most times make decisions made by lack of understanding and knowledge.
8. Zero Flexibility
The micro-manager- putting everything under the microscope trying to manage and control every detail big and small. These are not leaders! They expect everything done their way on their terms in their time frame. These are “leaders” who are not open to new ideas or fresh perspective and they expect you to not only do what they say- but be okay with it without any issue.
9. Leader who does know who you are
Poor leaders lock themselves away- allowing only small slots of time to access them. When they do allow you this time they expect you to listen to everything THEY wish to talk about and are not open to your conversations or issues needing to be addressed; unless the issue will reflect back on them poorly in some way.
These are the leaders who when they call on you, expect you to drop everything to meet with them and always be available for their needs. These leaders don’t know anything about you, or very little about you. You may have worked for them for years and they cannot tell you anything personal they know about you, which makes having trust and respect for the leader quite difficult, especially when they expect you to know everything about them.
10. Lack emotional control
These are the leaders that are happy one moment, preachy the next moment, then angry out of the blue…the whole roller coaster effect of highs and lows.
What this type of leaders has no clue on is the influence they are placing on the team and the mood that people carry with them. This shows such little self-control on the leader’s part as well as lack of emotional intelligence. Usually these are the leaders telling you that you lack maturity or emotional grounding- when the reality is it is they whole lack.
I ask that if you as a leader saw any of these traits in your leadership style, or have heard the rumor that is your leadership style, that you get involved in changing these by developing new skills. If you didn’t feel like this is you, but you suffer from high turnover in your staff and in your teams, then more than likely you do suffer with some of these traits.
Take a breath….it can change. As long as you can recognize the need to change, you can take the steps needed to make that happen. If you suffer from a leader like this you may want to consider working with another company if your leader is not willing to seek help.
If any or all of this resonated and you feel you are ready to change the way you lead your team, take a moment and schedule a meet and greet with me, let’s see what we can do to get you leading your team to the best of your abilities by giving yourself and your team the THRIVE for success.
About Margaret
Margaret is the President and CEO of DiscoverYourPathU LLC.
She is the owner of Soulstice Life Coaching, as well as co-creator of The Journey Beyond Pain and Life Coach Tribal Support.
Formerly a Director of Communications and a Corrections Officer; she answered her #calling2passion, where she followed her heart to become a Leadership and Communications Coach. She has 25+ years’ experience in leadership and communication.
