[October 18, 2016] It’s my belief, based upon experience and study of leadership, that the proper development of good leaders requires a bad leader to give them lessons on how not to act. For my purposes here, when I write about a “bad leader” this refers to those with poor skills, not evil traits; not to confuse evil with bad. In this respect, it is good to have bad leaders.
A bad leader shows us the effect of their efforts; disrespect, failure to have a vision or priorities, narcissism, poor communication skills, etc. They provide us, through their destructiveness, with behaviors that we should hesitate to copy and as well provide us with the motivation to improve ourselves. Perhaps it’s seeing how bad leaders operate that encourages good leaders to work harder and more focused.
Only those who are willing and driven to study and are firmly committed to learn leadership will benefit from bad leaders. Most people just suffer. Those bad leaders can be found anywhere and they will occasionally be right; like the stopped clock that is right twice per day. Close attention to them will teach valuable lessons that should never be forgotten.
Many leaders can empathize with those who have a bad leader as a boss. My first experience as an army officer with a bad leader was in my very first assignment. The company commander – a Captain – was a good person but he regularly made bad decisions that caused all of us extra work, embarrassment, loss of sleep, and confusion. I remember one time in a field exercise like it happened yesterday … at a meeting among all the officers, we begged him to not make a decision without talking to us first. Of course, he didn’t and that was partly why he was a bad leader.
I also learned from mediocre leaders who showed me what worked for them and what didn’t work and why. They were open about their failures and we would discuss them, without recrimination. Better than bad leaders, those mediocre leaders gave me a little guidance (not always good but gave me some anyway), were tolerant of my mistakes, and gave me the resources and flexibility to do my job with minimal interference.
Like any leader who personally strives for excellence, I took those lessons and adopted them. Learning from others both good and bad is far better than personal trial and error. What I found out from those bad leaders and mediocre bosses was not so much how not to make a mistake or bad decision but what you did afterwards to correct it and learn from it.
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