Levels of Leadership Hell
In the spirit of Halloween, this week's newsletter highlights different leadership "sins" as inspired by Dante's Inferno. With each sin is a real world impact that the leader or organization may suffer as a result of the behavior. To keep things tactical as we're having some fun, I've sprinkled various links to prior posts throughout the piece.
Just as Dante’s Inferno charts the descent through moral failings, we’ll explore the nine levels of leadership sins and the organizational torment they create…
Level 1: Untested or new leaders
These are the leaders in limbo. They haven't committed any real sins but they have not yet been tested by significant organizational or market challenges.
Their teams want to trust these leaders but are reserving judgment until they understand how effectively they are able to lead through adversity. How they show-up to their first challenges will determine whether they descend further.
Level 2: Absent leaders
Those leaders who are constantly away doing their own thing without providing any level of support to their team. This goes beyond individual autonomy, which I'm a huge proponent of, and borders on abandonment of one's team. They are so consumed with their own interests and pet projects that they can't be bothered to show-up for their team.
Many on their teams will operate self-sufficiently but the team will lack a cohesiveness or long-term strategic direction. Eventually, some will seek better and more supportive opportunities elsewhere.
Level 3: Micromanagers
The leaders who just can't help themselves from offering trivial, non-consequential critiques or suggestions on how their team should perform their work. This isn't just high attention to detail. These leaders want great results like everyone else but don't know how to deliver that without over-controlling the methods.
Their teams eventually adapt to this style. Innovation stagnates for lack of thought diversity. Those who don't leave the team learn to over-rely on their manager for decisions that should be within their authority. The team becomes bottlenecked with decisions and approvals all going to one individual.
Level 4: Glory hoarders
These are the leaders who take credit for their team's work with little recognition or acknowledgement. This might be taking sole credit for the results of the team or by claiming their team's ideas and suggestions as their own.
Knowing that they are not getting credit for their work, the team eventually reverts to doing only the bare minimum. Performance and innovation stagnate as the team plateaus into mediocrity.
Level 5: Chaotic leaders
Think of a leader whose mood is constantly erratic. They are wildly inconsistent, allowing their personal issues, feelings and stressors to dictate how they show-up from one day to the next.
The team loses any sense of psychological safety. This temperament spreads to the team who eventually avoid interactions with one another whenever possible. The disengaged team's reputation becomes known throughout the company as being difficult to work with.
Level 6: Pleasers
We've all met this leader. The pleasers fail to hold people on their team accountable, prioritizing their own comfort over what's best for the team as a whole. They don't hold people accountable or have difficult conversations when they're necessary. In their efforts to be a nice leader, they fail to be a great one.
The strong performers eventually leave, frustrated for always having to carry the team. Those who are left are the underperformers who know they are allowed to skate by without being held accountable. The manager is eventually let go for not being able to drive results.
Level 7: Authoritarians
Those leaders who lead only through the authority that their title affords them. They don't build relationships with their team or bother to learn through influence.
The team may see strong results for a short period of time but they quickly burn-out and learn to resent the leader. People leave and the leader has a hard time attracting high performing talent based on the fact they have neglected building relationships. The team eventually becomes a void for talent.
Level 8: Narcissists
Included in this leader's toolkit are strategies for silencing dissent, punishing constructive feedback and pushing for unquestioned loyalty.
These leaders build echo chambers of like-minded individuals. The narcissistic hive-mind eventually consumes itself until the team is let go or dissolved elsewhere in the organization. If distributed across the company, they have the potential to damage morale elsewhere.
Level 9: Betrayers
The leaders who not only fail to support their team, but who actively slow or prevent their development in order to avoid losing talent. They often demonstrate any combination of various sins above in addition to selfishly hoarding talent to make their life easier.
It may take time, but once this behavior surfaces, they will be branded as a poor and untrusting leader. Having potentially been blocked from internal promotion, their team is more likely to leave the company as a whole…costing the entire organization talent. Others in the company will learn of the leaders reputation and will avoid working for them. Once this behavior is identified, it becomes extremely difficult for the leader to establish trust and re-build their reputation.
This Week's Action Items:
Identify whether you are at risk of any of the above behaviors. While some of these are exaggerated, I've seen examples of each in real-world leaders.
Focus on building trusting relationships with your team. Good working relationships will combat many of these issues and will also increase the likelihood of your team providing you with candid feedback.
Check-out some of the previous posts that I've linked to in this article for more specific guidance on how to address each.
