Perspectives On Bad Leadership, Employee Empowerment, & Leadership Effectiveness
Let’s talk honestly about bad leadership.
Unfortunately, there are just too many awful, incompetent, and dishonest leaders out there. In the past, I’ve been dismissive of people who are crappy leaders. Even though I work in the safety industry, I’ve come across a plethora of bad leaders who work across many industries. Here are some examples:
Chief marketing officers who withhold information from their marketing directors.
Chief finance officers who boss around their accountants.
Chief operating officers who ignore their human resource specialists.
Chief information officers who blame-shift onto their programmers.
These days, though, I’m trying my best to learn from bad leaders. Really. I came to this conclusion by reflecting upon all the books I’ve read and seminars I’ve attended that have been about improving my leadership skills. When I finish reading a phenomenal leadership book, I often think, “That’s the kind of leader I want to be!” When I finish an inspiring leadership training session, I often think, “That’s the kind of leader I want to be!”
Now, whenever I come across a bad leader, I pay close attention to what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. That’s how I convert a potentially terrible experience into a learning one. And that’s when I think, “That’s who I don’t want to be.”
In my many years of experience with safety services and safety training, I’ve seen bad leadership lead to bad decisions, which then lead to low morale, employee turnover, and absenteeism. And all of that, in my opinion, increases the chance of someone taking an unnecessary safety risk.
With all my heart, I believe that one of the main roles of leadership is to instill a culture of safety. I talked extensively about this—and the characteristics of awful leaders compared to awesome leaders—in a recent podcast.
Check it out: https://youtu.be/STsejECnvxg
