Blog Posts

By Dr. Scott.

In my last blog, Leaders Leading Badly, we began a short series on the impact that ineffective and even bad leadership has on individuals and organizations.  As I continued to reflect and research on this topic, one sub-topic kept coming up and that was what to do when a particular leader is leading badly.  The advice in this area, though often positively spun, is yet another example of why leaders need to put in the effort to lead as effectively as they can or suffer the consequences.  With that in mind, this week, we look at three pieces of advice for followers whose leader is leading badly. 

An underlying theme this week is the notion that when leaders lead badly, it becomes the responsibility of the followers to fill in the gaps, make the best of the situation, or become another casualty to high turn-over rates at ineffective organizations.  This reversal of responsibilities is, of course, not ideal and becomes the catalyst for a whole slew of larger problems that undermine operations, organizational cultures, and long-term sustainability efforts.

Document Everything

When leaders are leading badly, it becomes easier to recognize when it is important to begin documenting their poor or ineffective behaviors.  But, with all the emails we receive these days and the number of interpersonal interactions we have throughout each day, we may overlook the importance of documenting everything. 

Now, let’s begin this with saying that documenting everything has many positive benefits.  For example, we can build trust and strong networks if we collect information such as birthdays, important life events or achievements, likes and dislikes, the names of family members, etc.  Leaders and team members who regularly collect this type of data can then use this data bank to make deeper connections with fellows, clients, and partners.  Another good example of a positive reason to document everything is for compliance purposes and to maintain accreditations, licenses, and other types of approvals.  Documenting everything for the purposes of demonstrating compliance with standards pays in dividends when it’s time for periodic, compliance reviews.

On the flip side of these positives is the need to document everything as a form of protection.  HR representatives and those of us from compliance related fields like medicine or education will tell us that we should never delete anything.  Conversations with fellow team members, customers, and especially our bosses should be kept so that there is a record of exchanges in the event of a dispute.  Another best practice relating to phone or in-person conversations is to, in an email, objectively summarize the discussion.  This produces a time-stamped, written documentation of the conversation, and, also provides an opportunity for all parties to agree with, discuss, or dispute the summary.   However, especially in relation to leaders leading badly, remember to use caution to safeguard your person, your fellows, and/or their or your career.

Advocate for Change

When leaders lead badly, there can be large gaps in the leadership chain.  Even if only a single leader is the bad actor, leadership along the chain—both the formal chain of command and the informal, organic leadership connections within organizations—is impacted and called upon to be a positive force for change. 

If we think about that chain of command, both the formal and the informal, as a spectrum, most of us probably transition from leader to follower and back again throughout our daily routines.  However, when leaders are leading badly, we all, no matter what our role, have the responsibility to advocate for change.  Now, just as I posited the documenting everything theme with a focus on some of the positive benefits, I unfortunately must begin this discussion with the obvious:  all efforts to help the leader improve may fail and this why I’ve included the final suggestion below.  That said, being a positive advocate for change begins with supporting the leader who has lost their way or is in over their head.

To support our leaders, especially those leading badly, we first need to make sure we become a vocal supporter and avoid or try to redirect negative gossip or mudslinging.  Next, we need to use all of those active listening skills we’ve discussed throughout many of these blogs, for example see Strategic Innovation and Inspirational Communication. In general, though, we can be active listeners and support struggling leaders through empathy, verbal and non-verbal cues, summarizing conversations, and asking objective questions.  Another best practice is to recommend or take part in professional development training or even professional coaching consultations such as those offered here at Madison Education Group through our Madison Coaching Academy.  Finally, when added support proves ineffective and the leader continues to lead badly and/or demonstrates toxic behaviors, you should seek remediation through your human resources department or by contacting higher levels of management when applicable.  Again, caution is recommended to safeguard your person and your career.

Quit

Sadly, when all else fails and leaders continue to lead badly or demonstrate toxic behaviors, a recommended best practice is to quit.  This obviously entails a great deal of risk an uncertainty, but as Dr. Jason Walker argued in Overcoming Toxic Leadership: Escape the Office Nightmare, “organizations are often not effective in dealing with toxic leaders and at times, the best course of action is to leave—the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but it often is better than your current situation.”

Final Thoughts

In this blog, we examined some solutions for when leaders lead badly.  As leaders, we have a responsibility to lead to the best of our abilities.    Unfortunately, other members of leadership and even followers sometimes have to fill in and make up for bad leadership.  This is, of course, not ideal and, even worse, many bad leadership situations are not actually fixable, certainly by team members impacted by leaders leading badly.  Above all else, the number one recommendation is to always safeguard yourself and your career, but followers can navigate bad leadership by documenting everything, advocating for change, and, when all else fails, protect your own interests, quit and, move on to hopefully greener pastures.

Thank you for reading the Madison School of Professional Development Wednesday Leadership Blog where we highlight leadership best practices each week.  Check out more from this blog and other blogs hosted by MEG here.

If you have a topic that you would like to see me pontificate on, drop me an email at info@meg-spd.com.

Dr. Scott Eidson is the Executive Vice President of the Madison School of Professional Development and holds doctoral degrees in both history and business.  When not thinking about leadership, he’s usually thinking about surfing or old Volkswagens.