Access your free copy
of the full article!!!
"*" indicates required fields
13 Ways Your Leaders May Be Damaging Your Workplace Culture
What’s the real secret to Leadership?
There are a great many ‘Leadership Gurus’ who share their best advice on what Great Leadership looks like – and countless different definitions, theories and books that claim they’ll turn you into the best Leader in the world…but what is at the heart of it all?
Is it setting aspirational targets for everyone in your team? Doing whatever it takes to hit them?
Is it bringing a brilliant new superstar into the team, who will outshine the performance of everyone else: who out-sells every other team, to give the rest someone to compete with?
Perhaps it’s more simple than that: is it setting a routine and systems for how the work should get done, and ensuring that everyone sticks to it? If it works, it works…right?
If you’re searching for the secret, and follow all the Gurus, you’ll be bombarded with different tips and tricks to ‘Be The Best Leader’ – but in reality, the culture your teams are working in is the best way to determine whether your Leaders are getting it right.
The culture of any organisation is shaped by its leaders – and that culture determines whether you have content, successful employees, or see a high turnover of disillusioned, frustrated staff. Whether your people thrive, and achieve your goals and ambitions, or your most talented people never really connect with your business, and leave for something that suits them better.
We help Business Leaders to develop the skills they need to be a better leader or manager. To understand and support the people within their teams, to communicate effectively, and to bring everyone together so that the whole organisation works around their shared values and goals.
For any organisation to grow, to create a successful culture where their people feel welcome, you need to commit to developing and strengthening everyone’s professional skills. This commitment benefits the company, of course, but it also benefits every individual in the organisation – and no matter what you do, it’s your people who make your company shine.
Most of the articles we write focus on how to create this kind of culture – but we don’t often talk about the negative traits we’ve witnessed. About those leaders who chip away (or outright obliterate) their team’s morale and wellbeing. With more than three decades, and tens of thousands of programmes for clients in every industry you can imagine, we’ve seen a lot of the wrong kind of Leaders, and the wrong kind of cultures…so we want to share our “Unlucky 13”: the Leadership behaviours you absolutely don’t want to encourage in your organisation!
Can one bad Leader really impact the WHOLE organisation...?
13 Leadership Mistakes to Avoid
Being a “bossy boss”
Most of us have, at some point, met this kind of Leader…one who barks out commands to their people, like their team are poorly trained puppies on the verge of a scolding! Who needs to control everything – and everyone – and makes sure you know they are in charge!
Their bossiness comes from insecurity, and a need to make sure that everyone is constantly reminded to respect their authority and do exactly as they’re told, no questions asked! Picture Cartman from South Park and you’re on the right track! Leaders like put their people on edge, make them question their work, and wear down any confidence – and competence – they have. This dictatorial approach to Leadership is one of the main reasons people give for leaving any job – and it seeps into the culture of the whole organisation, making it a toxic workplace for those who stay.
Micromanage Every Detail!
You can’t be bossy without sticking your finger into every pie, after all!
Leaders who micromanage don’t leave anyone out; if someone looks like they might know what they’re doing without their Leader’s input, the Micromanager will head over there quick sharp to insist they know a better way.
Top marks here for the ones who don’t really understand what that employee does, most often found dishing out totally inaccurate guidance, and undoing all the work that was achieved!
Enforcing strict working hours and excessive time tracking
Flexible and remote working continue to grow in popularity – and if the Pandemic taught us anything, it’s that an awful lot of corporate work doesn’t need everyone commuting to the office every single day!
Still, despite all the evidence, some Leaders just can’t let go of this control…no flexible working for their teams!
Everyone must be in the office, and tracking every working minute – and there’s no way they’d be allowed to move things around for family commitments, for their health, for any of the issues that crop up in all our lives. Nope; the Time Tracking Leader demands that everyone is at their desk, 9-5, no matter what! Worse, they’re usually sure to let their team know that just working their contracted hours is lazy! Lunch break schmunch break, get in early, slave away late, because everyone knows that relentlessly clocking up desk time shows commitment – and cracking that whip is how to show everyone you’re the best!
“That could have been an email” meetings
One aspect of a bossy or micro-managing Leader is their constant need to have an audience! To these Leaders, there’s no better way to show people how much more important they are than everyone else – and dragging the whole team away from their work to have yet another meeting (where nothing important is said or achieved, and an hour is wasted discussing a message that could have been conveyed much more effectively in a quick email!
For extra points, this Leader should make sure to admonish their team for not completing tasks on time, even though they couldn’t because they were dragged away to be in that meeting!
Dismiss the team’s feedback
A toxic Leader cannot work in a democracy! They can’t see past their own ego, or acknowledge that their team might be full of good ideas. The people – experienced, expert, talented people – in their team could have ideas that would improve the whole organisation – but this Leader can’t allow anyone else to get credit, so they shut down any ideas that aren’t their own!
If they’re pushed, they may let a select few team members feed ideas back to them, but inevitably they’ll claim those ideas as their own if they’re good (but it’s ok: they give full ‘credit’ to others when something goes wrong!)
“But this is the way it’s always been done…”
Some Leaders fear change!
They are committed to ‘the way I do it’, because that’s how they were taught…and they are suspicious of new suggestions. Some may see these suggestions as a criticism of their own work, or just of them.
New ideas – or changing the way the work is approached – could bring huge positives and success. New processes could streamline work that’s bogging people down, and could open up time for your teams to reach more customers, secure more work, improve turnover and feel more satisfied in their roles…but why go to all that effort when you’ve followed the same process since 1986 and it’s never done you wrong…?
The toxic leader will stamp any hints of creativity out before they spread to other team members – and their fear is a barrier for the entire organisation’s potential.
“Monochrome” Business
Any fan of Mary Poppins (the original film, an old reference but familiar to most people!) knows that the Gentlemen who ran the bank knew how business ought to look!
They’re stuffy, formal, stuck in their ways, and the merest hint of difference is squashed before it seeps into the culture. Excitement, passion, the joy that we all get from using our skills, from achieving our goals, from growing in our role, are so vital to people’s wellbeing and performance at work…but the toxic Leaders simply cannot embrace this kind of vibrance in their people.
Only their ideas matter, only their determination to ‘look like proper professionals’, and all they want is to keep things an even, monotonous shade of grey, from dress code and office decor right through to the personalities and culture of their teams.
Tone of voice
Successful Leadership does require authority – but there are those who inspire and garner respect, which comes with trust from the people they lead – and there are those who demand that their authority is obeyed.
Those with natural authority can convey information – can change behaviours, spark action, silence disagreements, instruct and direct what everyone does – and they do it with a firm tone. They can challenge disrespect, can command the attention of every single person in even a crowded room, never raising their voice – but not a word is missed.
A toxic Leader, on the other hand, has a much more tenuous hold on that authority. Their ‘firm’ is oppression. Their ‘direct’ is unkind. Their feedback is an attack, and their ‘requests’ are commands, and all dished out aggressively. They don’t attract the attention of their people – they demand it, and do so as loudly as possible.
They don’t see the teams they lead as worthy of their own respect – but demand it in return, despite doing nothing to earn it – and speak down to those they view as subordinates. Any power they wield is fiercely guarded, and held over others as a weapon.
Segregation – divide and conquer!
We spend so much of our time, and our life, at work – and it’s very normal for friendships and even relationships to be formed because you met someone at work that you gelled well with.
Great Leaders encourange bonding in their teams – camaraderie, friendship, team building, trust and respect – these are all important. A culture where people feel happy, supported, encouraged and connected to their peers. Where, even if they aren’t close friends, the relationships are friendly and mutually respectful.
In a toxic workplace, the Leader discourages this kind of bonding. Sees it as suspicious, or disruptive. Friendships are ‘ganging up’ and the toxic leader, who’s own world view is that everyone is in competition or out to get you, seeps into the culture and dynamics between everyone else.
The toxic Leader puts deliberate efforts into damaging these relationships. Derailing well-functioning teams. Pushes people to work in silos, jealously guarding their skills, their achievements, and the information needed for work projects to succeed. Everyone is in competition, and any success is an occasion for derision and suspicion, not celebration. In a toxic Leader’s ideal world, the whole team will be a little on edge at all times, unsure who they can trust – which means that nobody will feel brave enough to badmouth or stand up to them!
Feel all your feelings on the outside!
The most toxic of Leaders may have little time or desire to listen to the problems and woes the teams they lead are facing – but that doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t aware of the Leader’s!
These leaders particularly like to indulge in bad moods, throwing a temper tantrum, or shouting at their team, belittling people with outbursts, known for their unpredictable temperament so that everybody else needs to tip toe around their Leader.
If anyone seeks support, or is facing an issue – either in their work or in their personal lives, which will impact their work – they are penalised, berated, punished and dismissed. Their feelings, their needs, their well-being, are all irrelevant, and the toxic Leader makes absolutely sure that everyone knows it. Only THEIR needs matter – and if anyone points out their behaviour, or the impact it has on other people, they shrug it off and say that everyone should know that’s how they are, and make allowances for it!
Lax standards
Why deliver great quality work to your customers when you could…not? Toxic Leaders are happy to take all the credit when things have gone well, and if – by chance – some work is of a high standard, that’s on them! However, they have little interest in doing the work well, preferring to do the bare minimum and coast.
This slapdash approach, and constant distain or credit-grabbing from their Leader, quickly spreads to the teams they lead. They will all pick up on that lax approach to maintaining standards, knowing there will be no reward or praise for work well done, and that great performance only singles them out for more mistreatment from their boss.
Open criticism and public shaming
No matter how experienced or talented you are, mistakes happen to everyone; we’re all capable of them, and it’s inevitable that mistakes, errors or failures will happen in any business.
Great Leaders know this – and see any mistakes as an opportunity for their team to learn, and for new experiences to be shared, to the benefit of everyone. They are understanding and flexible, focussed on solutions, so their teams feel safe even when they’ve messed up.
Toxic Leaders…? Not so much! They will loudly name and shame the mistake maker – show them up in front of the other members of the team – berating and belittling them. They will bang that drum over and over, far and wide, determined not only to humiliate their people, but to ensure that everyone is afraid of being the target of this treatment. Fear – in the mind of the toxic Leader – is a great tool to ensure that nobody will ever make a mistake again, but in truth it just creates an environment in which mistakes are hidden, people are less bold and proactive in their work, and a culture of mistrust and secrecy stalls any progress in the business.
Hugely competitive, target driven goals
Obviously, every business needs goals – and communicating those goals, and the strategic plans and actions that will get you there, is part of Leadership.
For Great Leaders, this is a collaborative process. Though they might set these goals, they do it with the team in mind; with the talent, experience, capacity and capability of their people at the heart of every decision – and when those goals are ambitious, the plans include the development, training and support necessary to improve their teams, to make those ambitious goals achievable. Not only that, successes are a shared celebration; there are no stars, because the role each and every person has in the business is part of that success – so every win is shared, and individual achievements are announced and celebrated by the entire team.
The toxic leader, on the other hand, can’t abide this kind of collaborative work. Cannot abide people sharing glory they feel should only belong to them. The goals a toxic Leader sets aren’t ambitious, they are unreachable. In place of support and training, they pile on pressure! They pit their teams against each other, setting unrealistic targets, and they push, push, push people to – and beyond – the brink of their abilities. They make everything a competition, and when one person achieves a goal they become a target for everyone else. A target to compete with and – when nobody can compete – a target of any tactics needed to knock them off that high spot. This gives them a team who are fractured, who are under huge stress, under the hammer, and very likely to burn out or fall apart, or – hopefully – move on to a better environment before the damage is permanent.
Toxic Leadership is far more damaging than people merely not liking their boss. It’s the rotten core that can destroy an entire organisation – and which is familiar to far too many people.
If you’ve ever met one of the horrible bosses described, and you want to make absolutely certain that your organisation is different, we can help. Reshaping a culture that’s already toxic isn’t easy – but all it takes is a commitment from Leaders who want better. Who want their people to thrive, and to build a better future for their organisation.
If you want Leaders who boost confidence and achievements in your whole workforce, and set your future up for success, Just ASK us how; call 01234 757575 or email us at hello@askeurope.com