I have served with some great leaders. I have been blessed to learn from them and experience the wisdom and guidance of their leadership.
But I have also served with some terrible leaders. Leaders who had no idea how to lead well. Leaders whom I experienced and learned how not to lead from.
To be honest, I have sometimes been the terrible leader. I have made leadership mistakes that have caused misdirection and mayhem.
What can you learn from terrible leadership? Here are 10 terrible leadership lessons I have learned from terrible leaders.
Micromanaging.
One leader I worked for micromanaged so much that the person wanted to see what coloring sheet we would be passing out on Sunday.
A micromanager will be overly critical and controlling. They cause the people they lead to feel oppressed and distrusted.
A micromanager will schedule frequent one-on-one meetings or ask for progress updates at every stage of an assignment. He or she will require approval for every assignment. They don't like to delegate because it may cause them to loss control.
At one church where I was on staff, the co-pastor literally had to control every decision and be the final decision maker. In a glass door review, one former employee said the person had to make all the decisions for the organization.
Don't be that leader. Empower your leaders to make decisions and trust them with the outcome.
Evaluation without encouragement.
One leader I reported to would spend our entire one-on-one meetings talking about the mistakes I had made since our last meeting. Never a word of encouragement. Never a "thank you." Never a "How is your family doing?" Never a "how can I pray for you?" Never a "good job."
Don't be a leader who only talks about the negatives. Don't be a leader who never encourages and thanks the people who report to you.
Evaluation without encouragement is terrible leadership.
Only sharing what you see wrong and not sharing what you see going well is terrible leadership.
A negative leader is a terrible leader. Make sure you have as many positives as you do negatives on your list.
Not having your back.
Do the people you lead know you have their back?
One terrible leader I worked for would constantly welcome and seek out leadership mistakes I had made. Disgruntled team members knew they could go around me and complain to this person with no repercussions.
A terrible leader will not follow the Mathew 18 principle. Rather, they will encourage people to come to them instead of sending them back to you to discuss issues at numerous levels.
A terrible leader is "business only."
They won't spend time building a relationship with you. A terrible leader won't spend any time with you outside of "work" meetings. This is most obvious in meetings. No time is spend asking about how your family is doing? What are some of your prayer requests and how can I pray for you?
The terrible leader has a checklist of items to talk with you about in meetings. Nothing interrupts getting through "the list."
A terrible leader only leads by title.
People don't follow a title...they follow someone they love and respect. This is something terrible leaders don't understand or practice. They try to lead by lording over people.
Lack of presence.
I mentioned a leader who micromanages. But the opposite is a leader who is never around. One of the places where I served as children's pastor, had a leader who never came by the kids' areas to say "hi." It was as if we didn't even exist.
A terrible leader is not intentional about "walking slowly through the crowd." They rush back to their green room and they do not take time to say "thank you" to those who are serving.
A high-level leader needs to seen by all volunteers. It doesn't have to be long. Just pop your head in the door for a minute and say "hi" to the kids and the leaders who are serving.
A terrible leader has a "my way or the highway" attitude.
They are not open to other ideas or opinions other than their own.
The people they lead lose heart because they know their ideas will be shot down.
I remember years ago, I asked the people I was leading if they would give me some ideas for a project. The response was minimal and I had to drag out ideas from people on the team. Why was this so hard? I later found out that people didn't want to provide ideas because they knew I wouldn't take them seriously and I would use whatever idea I came up with.
This became painfully obvious as they sat in silence when I asked for their ideas.
A terrible leader makes changes before casting vision for the change.
I did this at one place where I served and it caused an uproar. What I thought was a simple change turned out to be a complex change for them. I introduced the change without sufficiently showing why the change needed to happen and the benefits people would gain from it.
Change must be a process if you want to see it be successful.
A terrible leader doesn't listen.
I remember a specific time when I was confronting a team member who had said something that went against one of our core values. The conversation ended up being one-sided as I corrected her. I didn't give her an opportunity to respond and finally she said "You're not listening to me and you're not hearing my side of this." She jumped up and stormed out of the room in frustration.
I learned a valuable lesson that day through my mistake. Always take time to let people be heard...even when they are in the wrong.
Terrible leaders bully over people and don't give them an opportunity to respond.
A terrible leader refuses to address and navigate through conflict.
Terrible leaders sweep things under the rug. Instead of dealing with conflict they try to ignore it...hoping it will go away.
But it doesn't go away and ends up hurting those involved.
I will be honest. I hate conflict. I am a people pleaser by nature (as many people in ministry are) and conflict stresses me out.
Conflict must be dealt with. Whether it's conflict you own or conflict between other people, as the leader, you must address it and work through it. If you are a terrible leader and just let it go it will continue to fester under the surface and will emerge again at an even greater level.
Do you struggle in any of these areas? As I said, I do. I have to work on these things so I can be a good leader. I'm guessing you do as well.
What are some other leadership lessons you have learned by watching and experiencing terrible leaders? Share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section below.
