8 Fatal Flaws of Truly Terrible Leaders

And how effective leaders are different

Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels

Think about the most effective leaders you know. They don’t have to brag about their leadership skills.

They just lead.

They’re excellent communicators. They tell everyone exactly what they need and expect. They can calm anyone down with the right words. They delegate, but they also roll up their own sleeves and pitch in.

They stand up for people who can’t.

Most of all, they lead by example. They demonstrate the behaviors they want from others. They set the tone. They put in more work than everyone else, but they never complain about it — not even when invited to.

Terrible leaders do the opposite, and you can learn a lot about leadership from studying their failures:

1. They don’t listen to experts

Someone who thinks they know everything will never learn anything. Terrible leaders assume they already have all the answers. They pretend to invite discussion and debate. But it’s just a puppet show to them. Afterward, they do what they want anyway.

Sometimes they skip the debate part and jump straight into an awful decision that blows up on everyone else.