How to spot a bad leader?

Sometimes the qualities of an excellent leader and a terrible one are surprisingly similar.

Take confidence, for example. A good leader can confidently take on challenges and make big, risky decisions. But bad leaders can have a lot of confidence too. Like confidence that their ideas are never wrong or confidence that they already know everything they need to know.

So what’s the real difference between a good leader and a bad one? Here’s how you can spot a poor leader:

They don’t inspire. Leadership isn’t something you do by yourself — it’s about the people you lead. People are happy to follow excellent leaders. These leaders lift up everyone around them, not just themselves.

An inspiring leader makes the whole team feel good by communicating well, helping everyone succeed, and setting a great example.

They don’t have vision. Bad leaders can do a lot of the same things good leaders do, like take risks and have creative ideas. But the leader’s decisions need to have purpose.

If there doesn’t seem to be a clear, easy to communicate vision behind what employees are asked to do, they’ll quickly lose trust in their boss.

They don’t get results. It’s simple. No leader succeeds at everything all the time, but the good ones will have something to show for their efforts.

It doesn’t matter how many leadership characteristics a person has if they can’t put it all together to accomplish big goals.