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Leadership from Bad to Worse

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Leadership from Bad to Worse

What Happens When Bad Festers

Oxford UP,

15 min read
8 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

You can recognize and stop bad leaders.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Visionary
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

What is a bad leader, and what signs show that leaders are on a dangerous path? Harvard’s Barbara Kellerman tells you how to assess bad leaders in context, both business and political, underscoring that they have no power without complicit followers. She outlines four “phases” of bad leadership, noting inflection points where intervention might reverse a leader’s worst impact. Using ample examples from today’s political scene, she also details how followers can mitigate a leadership crisis despite technology’s role in distorting discourse.

Summary

Bad leadership is unethical and ineffective.

Bad leadership in the corporate or public sector is a “social disease” that requires careful identification and codification. You can assess bad leadership by using an axis of how unethical and ineffective the leader might be. Ineffective leaders could be:

  • Incompetent – Leaders and their staff lack the skills to create positive outcomes and maintain a reasonable status quo.
  • Rigid – Unyielding and inflexible, these leaders cannot adapt to or implement new ideas or policies.
  • Intemperate – Leaders indulge in their worst impulses despite efforts by their subordinates to redirect them.

Unethical leaders may be corrupt or evil. A corrupt leader puts self-interest ahead of the common good by lying, cheating, and stealing. An evil leader uses punishment and pain as leadership tools. Unethical leaders also include those who are callous or insular. Callous leaders are uncaring and unkind. They disregard others’ needs, particularly those of their subordinates. Insular leaders and their close aides neglect people outside of their small, elite circle.

About the Author

Barbara Kellerman, a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, led the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the University of Maryland, and cofounded the International Leadership Association (ILA). She is also the author of Bad Leadership, Followership, The End of Leadership, and Professionalizing Leadership, among other titles.

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