Bosses, are you exhibiting common symptoms of bad leadership? Do you sometimes think your team members hate you? Do you sometimes feel that they question your decisions behind your back? Does your team lack faith in your ability to lead them? Do you resent them for feeling this way? Or are you curious to know why they’re like that in the first place?
As the boss, it’s important to recognize that your title doesn’t automatically earn you the effective leadership skills needed to successfully hold on to that leadership role. Quite frankly, tons of company leaders are put into a leadership position they’re not equipped to occupy. Either they grow into it, or spend a good chunk of their career struggling. In this piece, I want to help you swallow the bitter pill that is bad leadership. If you identify with one or more of these symptoms of bad leadership, it’s not too late to change.
Which Symptoms of Bad Leadership are You Guilty of?
Automatons Lacking Empathy
Some leaders care about results, nothing else. They don’t care how things are done, or what kind of sacrifices team members have had to make just to submit their employee’s work. What’s important is you finish the task no matter what. This is a clear example of lack of empathy, which is a sign of bad leadership.
Their approach might look good on the surface, but beneath all the on-time submissions and exemplary work is a team of unsatisfied, almost-zombie-like employees who wouldn’t dare defy their boss’s expectations. The result is a toxic work environment where mistakes are swept under the rug, leading to low morale and long-term negative effects.
Criticisms, Criticisms, but No Feedback for Improvement
Creatives know this pain all too well, but it’s experienced by employees in other industries, too. The boss rejects the work citing it’s not what they like, it’s not up to standards, or the generic, “you’re doing it wrong” complaint—without clarifying exactly what needs to be changed.
As a leader, it’s your responsibility to critique an employee’s work. But critiquing goes hand in hand with providing clear direction and effective communication. The inability to articulate yourself is a critical skill gap. Without it, your team members won’t be able to grow, which leads to lack of engagement and declining employee morale.
Know-it-All
Ugh, the know-it-all. Annoying people, aren’t they? They think they know too much. But they don’t know what they don’t know.
Know-it-all leaders have a strong desire to feel like the smartest person on the team. They’re not interested in hearing your opinion, and certainly not in learning from you. This behavior reflects a lack of emotional intelligence and often creates a lack of trust within the entire organization.
A huge ego and lack of curiosity often cause leaders like this to overlook critical items and commit mistakes that could’ve been easily avoided—another classic sign of poor leadership.
Understandably, some leaders feel that they have to know the answers to all possible questions their subordinates might ask. But that’s just not true. Successful leaders understand that admitting what they don’t know is often the right thing to do. A better leader seeks different perspectives and is open to new ideas.
Buddy or Boss
Listen up, especially the newly-minted leaders out there. You don’t have to be friends with your team just to gain their trust and respect. You are the boss, and that puts you in an awkward situation if you become buddies with the people you’re managing.
Sure, friendship can quickly gain you their trust and respect. But at what cost? Once you’re friends, they may undermine your leadership, assuming they can get away with anything. This often leads to lack of accountability, inconsistent expectations, and poor leadership qualities.
Friendship can also cloud your judgment toward poor performance, career advancement, and discipline—creating a toxic workplace that hurts employee engagement and job satisfaction.
No Clear Vision or Direction
Some leaders are busy all day but still leave their teams feeling lost. Priorities shift constantly. Goals feel fuzzy. One week the focus is speed, the next it’s perfection. Team members stop asking questions because the answers change depending on the day—or the mood.
When leaders lack a clear vision, the team ends up reacting instead of moving forward with purpose. People do their best, but they’re guessing what success actually looks like. That uncertainty creates frustration, wasted effort, and eventually disengagement. Over time, even high performers stop taking initiative because they don’t want to head in the wrong direction.
Good leadership requires clarity. Teams need to know where they’re going and why their work matters. When leaders fail to provide that direction, the result is confusion, low morale, and poor performance. A strong leader doesn’t have to have every detail figured out—but they do need to point the team in the right direction and stay consistent enough for people to follow.
Be Honest, Do You Show Any of These Signs?
Imagine for a second that it’s just you and me. No one else is around. Can you honestly say that you’re not guilty of the above behaviors? If you are, what are you willing to do about it?
You don’t have to force yourself to change all at once. You can improve little by little. As long as you’re aware of the problem—aware of the warning signs and symptoms of bad leadership—that’s a good start. Becoming a strong leader who creates a positive work environment is a journey. But it is one well worth taking.
Michelle Riklan is president of Riklan Resources and a leadership development instructor in the Northeast. She is based in Trenton, NJ, but also teaches in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other Northeast cities.