The Contradiction that is Unethical Leadership
Though I had saved the department tens of thousands of dollars in the previous quarter, I was still reprimanded for not being cooperative enough. It’s not that I was told that I wasn’t a good team player. Rather, I was accused of being uncooperative.
The “uncooperative” narrative came from the fact that I literally could not generate a report within the fifteen minutes.
Earlier that year, I had changed the workflow and automation of our reporting process so that it only took thirty minutes — down considerably from the eight hours it previously took; this is where I had saved them all that money. The problem was, it always took thirty minutes. I simply could speed up the process anymore.
But thirty minutes wasn’t fast enough… one late workday, the VP wanted it done in fifteen minutes so she could present it at the end of the current meeting. I told her I literally could not do as she requested and as a result, I was labeled as uncooperative and thus took a hit on my annual evaluation.
Unsurprisingly, I left the department.
I had almost left the company outright but a software manager I had been working closely with for a few years wanted me to join his group, so I took a position with him.
Then, in this new position, the company tried to refuse to give me fair compensation, offering me a meager 2% bump when I should have received something closer to a 50% increase.
Thankfully my new boss, stood up for me and got me a salary that was competitive in the market at the time. But as you might imagine, the whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth. How could I trust the company (insofar as anyone can “trust” a faceless entity)? I was happy that the new group I worked for was full of awesome people I could respect, so I kept on with the company despite my reservations.
A friend of mine recently shared a similar story to mine: He had been given a poor performance review, unlike any in his entire career. Feeling like he had been singled out (and having the support of his co-workers), he took it to HR, but they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do anything about it. The leadership had failed him.
Not long after the incident, upon a significant event happening within the company, his boss — the one that gave him the bad review — was let go. That says a lot. Imagine being torn down in your review only to find yourself surviving a layoff event, but your accusatory boss didn’t. Something certainly seemed to be amiss.
These are only two of many stories I’ve heard recently (or experienced myself) around what amounts to unethical leadership.
The Contradiction
The term “unethical leadership” is itself an oxymoron. Is it leadership if the management team is behaving badly? Can we say an unethical leader is a role model and a symbol of inspiration? No, we can’t, because acting in unethical ways is contrary to true leadership.
Rather, “unethical leadership” is a form of authoritarianism. The self-centered type, has a lack of concern about others, lies or makes up stories to advance their agenda, and all-around dismisses any opinions that they, these so-called leaders, see as a threat to them.
Filling in more my story, the reason I was given a bad review goes a little deeper. The supervisor I had was someone I considered a friend. He was promoted to supervisor over my group and was the one to give me the bad news. Unfortunately, he spoke to upper management about old conversations where he and I bitched about the everyday pains of work, like employees are prone to do. He ended up painting me in a bad light with the rest of management. That, along with my inability to produce a thirty-minute report in fifteen minutes, caused me to be labeled “uncooperative” and I wasn’t given a raise.
I later found out, — from him — that he’d been pressured into looking purposely for things to make my review look worse. He was new to the management gig and submitted to his boss’s demands because he didn’t want to risk his new position. Does that sound ethical to you? Both his behavior and more so the behavior of the parts of upper management? I certainly took it as being unethical, which is why I left the department and almost left the company.
The Impact of the Unethical Leader
Unethical “leaders” create divisions within an organization. This is one reason we can’t truly call them leaders. Leaders are supposed to be guides, beacons, and standard-bearers by which the rest of the company (or even just a department) can rest assured their work is appreciated and will generate something fruitful. Something we, as employees, can be proud of.
However, such people lose the title of “leader” the moment they cause derision and discomfort among their reports. Another friend of mine left his last company because his boss was hiring H1B visa holders less for their skills and more for their ability to take up space and be more “cooperative” than someone who isn’t on a visa. Needless to say, my friend felt what he was witnessing was wrong, so he left.
Maybe these were bad apples, you might say. But are they? Maybe they started as good, solid leaders, but were tempted to the dark side because top-level management gave subtle (or worse, direct) messaging that it was okay to stretch certain boundaries. Or maybe they were bad people to begin with and the top-level wasn’t been doing anything to crack down on the bad behavior.
In a way, that makes the top-level less leaders and more enablers of the problems. Bad apples will creep in, inevitably, especially for large corporations; that has to be acknowledged. Hiring managers may not have enough bandwidth to properly vet someone, or perhaps the candidate that was hired was very slick in their interviews. There is often simply not enough manpower to police an entire company. HR certainly didn’t serve my one friend well enough, so even they sometimes can’t be of help, though we tend to see HR as a bastion of good behavior.
But there’s a way that demonstrates true leadership at the upper-levels of a company. If the top-level leadership encourages and follows through with humane policies of reporting unethical or questionable behavior, then employees who share similar stories to what I’ve mentioned can make a report and know — not just feel — that they will get a fair response and investigation. If HR happens to get a lot of reports, then the top-level will know it has a much bigger problem on its hands.
If so, then it is time for leadership to shine by confronting the offending parties and either engaging in corrective behaviors or letting them go so that the problem — read: unethical — employees don’t poison the well any longer.
Leadership needs to act in a way that can be respected and commended. They need to look out not only for the bottom line of the company, but also their employees. In doing so, they eliminate the cruft that can slow a company down, which is what unethical acts inevitably do. When unethical behavior is witnessed and not taken care of, it sets people on edge, hindering performance. Or worse, it forces the best talent away, leaving knowledge and skill gaps, as well as the worst performers, further inhibiting the company.
As you can see, being an ethical leader had more value than that of just being a good person. It also has positive performance, financial, and cultural influence that makes the company not just more productive but safe for people to express honest, ethical opinions.
That is a truer form of leadership than any unethical boss could hope to achieve.
