Bad Leadership

The Leadership Edge this month is focusing on Barbara Kellerman's book,Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters. Harvard Business School. 2004.

Leadership is leadership. Sometimes it is good and sometimes bad. Almost all leadership books focus on the positive, "light", side of leadership. Rarely does someone look at the bad side of leadership; the "dark" side. Kellerman goes even further in that she dedicates the whole book to the concept of bad leadership; something that no other author I've read has done. There is a dark side to the human condition and to deny that it plays a role in the exertion of leadership is folly. It is only in understanding this dark side and making different choices that we will develop differently. If we are not willing to investigate where leadership has gone wrong, analyze the situation and make different decisions, then we are destined to repeat the same mistakes of people in the past. George Santayana's famous quote is: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Kellerman defines a leader as one who "chooses a particular course of action and then in some way gets others to go along; or, more subtly, the leader encourages the led to "choose" the course that the group will follow." (p.xiii) You will notice that she doesn't define leadership as a position a person holds.

She lists seven areas of bad leadership:
1. Incompetent
2. Rigid
3. Intemperate
4. Callous
5. Corrupt
6. Insular
7. Evil

For most of human history, it was presumed that leadership had "badness". Cruelty was assumed to be a part of leadership. In Machiavellian terms, the bad leader was a weak leader who refused to do what was necessary. Machiavelli and the U.S. founders shared something in common: the belief that people must be restrained from their base (and darker) instincts. That is the reason that so many protections were built in democracy: to constrain people from exerting power in harmful ways.

"Why Do Leaders Behave Badly?... leaders behave badly because of who they are and what they want." pp18-19

Why Do We Follow Leaders Who Behave Badly?...Unless followers are pressured or coerced into going along with bad leaders, they resist them- right? Wrong. p.21

She suggests that the primary reasons that people choose to follow bad leaders are because of individual and group needs. Bad leaders help to satisfy needs. (pp.22-25) Followers dedication to bad leaders is often strongest when their leaders are very bad, as opposed to only somewhat bad... it is a matter of self-interest." p. 25

Bad leadership falls into two categories: bad as in ineffective and bad as in unethical. p.33
"Ineffective leadership fails to produce the desired change.p.33
Unethical leadership fails to distinguish between right and wrong. p.34
She lists the things that ethical leaders do (and unethical leaders do not do.Ethical leaders put their followers' needs before their own... exemplify private virtues such as courage and temperance... exercise leadership in the interest of the common good. p34-35. She then follows with the issue of followers and their behavior. Ethical followers take the leader into account...exemplify private virtues such as courage and temperance... engage the leader and also other followers on behalf of the common good.

Incompetent leadership- the leader and at least some followers lack the will or skill (or both) to sustain effective action. With regard to at least one important leadership challenge, they do not create positive change.
Leaders that she writes about in this category:
Bernadine Healy, American Red Cross
Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee
Abdurrahman Wahid, President (the first) of Indonesia
Jill Barad, CEO of Mattell, Inc.


Rigid leadership- the leader and at least some followers are stiff and unyielding. Although they may be competent, they are unable or unwilling to adapt to new ideas, new information,or changing times.
Leaders in this category:
Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa
Mary Meeker, financial analyst
Robert Haas, CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.
Summer Redstone, CEO, Viacom
Vladimir Putin, President of Russia


Intemperate leadership- the leader lacks self-control and is aided and abetted by followers who are unwilling or unable effectively to intervene.
Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia
Marion Barry, Jr., Mayor of Washington D.C.
Gary Hart, Senator, United States
Jesse Jackson, politician & clergyman
James Bakker, minister, Assemblies of God
Reverend Henry Lyons, President, National Baptist Convention
William Bennett, ex-Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan

Callous- the leader and at least some followers are uncaring or unkind. Ignored or discounted are the needs, wants, and wishes of most members of the group or organization, especially subordinates.
Martha Stewart
Al Dunlap, CEO of Sunbeam Corporation
Rudolph Guliani, former mayor, New York City
Leona Helmsley, hotelier
Howell Raines, Executive Editor, New York Times

Corrupt leadership- the leader and at least some followers lie, cheat, or steal. To a degree that exceeds the norm, they put self-interest ahead of the public interest.
A. Alfred Taubman, Owner of Sotheby
Diana(Dede) Brooks, CEO of Sotheby
William Aramony, United Way of America
Vincent (Buddy) Cianci Jr., Mayor, Providence, Rhode Island
Mario Villanueva, Governor, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Andrew Fastow, CFO, Enron

Insular leadership- the leader and at least some followers minimize or disregard the health and welfare of "the other" - that is, those outside the group or organization for which they are directly responsible.
Bill Clinton, President of the United States
Lee Raymond, President, Exxon Corp.
James W. Johnston, CEO, R.J. Reynolds

Evil leadership- the leader and at least some followers commit atrocities. They use pain as an instrument of power. The harm done to men,women,and children is severe rather than slight. The harm can be physical, psychological, or both.
Foday Sankoh, guerrilla leader in Sierra Leone
Radovan Karadzic, President of Bosnian Serbs
Saddam Hussein, Iraq leader
Pol Pot, Cambodia leader
Jim Jones, sect leader (Jonestown, Guyana)
David Korresh, sect leader (Ranch Apocalypse)

"We know three important things:
1. Sometimes leaders, and followers, make a difference.
2. Sometimes this difference is significant.
3. Sometimes the outcome is bad." p.48

Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun. Clifford Geertz

In the later part of the book (p.233) she offers some suggestions to leaders on how they can be more effective and ethical.
- Limit your term
- Share power
- Don't believe your own hype
- Get real, and stay real
- Compensate for your weaknesses
- Stay balanced
- Remember the mission
- Stay healthy
- Develop a personal support system
- Be creative
- Know and control your appetites
- Be reflective

She continues (p. 235) with ways that leaders can work with followers to get the best work in the best possible way.
- Establish a culture of openness in which diversity and dissent are encouraged.
- Install an ombudsman
- Bring in advisers who are both strong and independent
- Avoid groupthink
- Get reliable and complete information, and then disseminate it
- Invite an historian to the table
- Establish a system of checks and balances
- Strive for stakeholder symmetry

On p. 239 she begins to explain things that followers could do to implement corrections.
- Empower yourself
- Be loyal to the whole and not to any single individual
- Be skeptical
- Take a stand
- Pay attention

Then on p. 240 she explains ways that followers can work with others
- Ensure that the punishment fits the crime
- Find allies
- Develop your own sources of information
- Take collective action
- Be a watchdog
- Hold leaders to account

Questions to consider and find your answers for:
Which of the bad leadership traits do you have personal experience?
What have you done when faced with this type of leadership?
Do you see any subtle traces of some of these traits? Which ones? How do you counter them/it?
If you are a small business owner, how do you implement the suggestions that she makes?
If you are in many positions of followership, in what areas can you apply her suggestions?
What are three steps that you can take to improve bad leadership within your sphere of influence and control?