Characteristic Behaviors of “Leadership” to Avoid

I have been reading a lot about destructive leaders. Until now, most of my writings have been about ethical leaders. For example, I have written that ethical leadership means individuals behave according to a set of principles and values that are recognized by society and relevant professions as a sound basis for the common good.

Leadership is the ability to influence the thoughts and actions of others to achieve a vision, mission or goal. Some simply refer to leadership as “Influence.” Willie Patterson III says that leadership is “influence,” which, as we know, provides the basis for leading others.

Here are some ethical principles that I have identified o help build such influence and establish an ethical culture, a critical factor for an ethical leader who wants employees to be followers.

Ethical Principles

• Integrity
• Respect
• Trust
• Fairness
• Transparency
• Honesty
• Responsibility & Accountability

Other literature identifies five principles for ethical leadership including: build community, respect others, manifest honesty, exhibit justice, and serve others. These five principles define much of what ethical leaders should do.

Defining Destructive Leadership

The biggest challenge I had in writing this blog was defining what is meant by Destructive Leadership. Clearly it means different things to different people. Here is a sampling of what I found.

Avolio characterizes it as Avoidant leadership, which involves the absence of proactive leadership behaviors, including avoiding decision-making and failing to take action until problems become serious. Tepper calls it Abusive leadership, which involves actively hostile leadership behaviors, including invading employees’ privacy and putting them down in front of others.

Other research identifies four types of destructive leadership behaviors: incoherent planning (e.g., deficient planning behaviors), assigning unnecessary tasks (e.g., making decisions that generate unnecessary tasks), ambiguous expectations (e.g., communicating unclear demands), and autocratic behavior (e.g., ignoring others’ views).

Grill and Nielsen found managers’ incoherent planning behaviors to be potentially harmful and an important aspect of destructive leadership. They argue that a lack of or inadequate planning reduce structure and predictability at work and increase ad hoc decision-making; when employees face an unstructured and unpredictable work situation and are forced to adjust their work to ad hoc decisions from their managers, their work becomes more reactive and their own long-term planning is undermined, potentially reducing their productivity and motivation.

Autocratic behavior includes disregarding input from employees, which may discourage them from participating in work-related activities and reduce their motivation.  Grill argues that employees’ knowledge and experience must be considered in order for their work to be productive, and being listened to allows employees to feel that their input is valuable, important, and meaningful. 

Leadership Traits

Patterson III says that destructive leadership involves the excessive use of power, control or influence. He adds that such a leader is constantly asserting power and control over people, which he suggests emanates from an overblown ego. They will fight any attempt to breach their role as a leader.

Destructive leadership can be characterized by actions, behaviors, or attitudes that have harmful effects on individuals, teams, and organizations. Latina says that it involves leaders engaging in behavior that undermines the well-being, morale, and productivity of their subordinates and can ultimately lead to negative outcomes for the organization as a whole. More specifically, it is the systematic and repeated behavior of a manager or executive that violates the interests of the organization by undermining or sabotaging goals, tasks, resources, as well as the effectiveness and/or motivation, well-being, or job satisfaction of the employees.

All forms of destructive leadership involve persistent behavior on the part of managers, as Latina points out. Incidental unavailability or an angry outburst from a manager who usually exhibits constructive behavior are therefore not included. Destructive leadership can take various forms, and some common characteristics include abuse of power, lack of empathy, poor communication, micromanagement, unrealistic expectations, blame-shifting, lack of integrity, and resistance to feedback.

Dr. Annette Towler addresses the dark side of leadership. “Such leaders share common personality traits, notably including narcissism, hubris and Machiavellianism. There are some organizational best practices on how to deal with such destructive leaders who exhibit these very traits. Organizations are best served through identifying these individuals and ensuring they are not placed in positions of power in the first place.”

Challenges for New Leaders

It’s important for new leaders to have a game plan to avoid these negative traits. Paul Falcone is principal of Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Consulting, LLC. He has written five books on effective leadership. Falcone points out the challenges new leaders face. Dealing with them at an early stage can help build effective leaders.

• Coaching and Mentoring Employees
• Inspiring Employee Engagement
• Fostering Teamwork to Encourage Innovation
• Mastering the Art of Active Listening
• Becoming an Effective Communicator
• Establishing Key Metrics to Drive Business Forward
• How to Create a Positive Relationship Between Yourself and HR
• And, Much More

There is so much more to say about leadership, and I will, undoubtedly, address this issue again at a later date. Let me close with a statement that speaks volumes to me about how negative traits can be carried to an extreme by insensitive leaders. It has to do with letting power go to your head. According to Lord Acton, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The point is there needs to be checks and balances on leader behavior by having key people in the organization monitor such behavior, and the appropriate steps need to be taken if a leader lets such power go to their head. Leaders should not be allowed to think, unchecked, that they are better than others in the organization.

Posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on December 3, 2024. Visit Steve's website and sign up for his newsletter at: https://www.stevenmintzethics.com/.