Ugly Leaders

1181 Words3 Pages

The concept of leadership seems straightforward and easily understood. Typically, organizations create formal structures and select individuals to manage different areas of the organization. Often, they refer to this collective group of individuals to as the leadership team; each business function with its own leader. However, although capable managers fill these roles, they often lack the essential leadership skills to drive sustainable long-term success.
Defining leadership
Leadership can be defined as the process of inspiring people with a shared vision and guiding them along the journey to achieve that vision while adapting to overcome challenges they may face along the way. Without people, there is no leadership. For leadership …show more content…

As they focus on their own success at all costs, these leaders frequently leave a series of broken relationships; low morale; poor team performance and high turnover left in their wake. Often, these leaders view the team as a burden and an obstacle to their own success, frequently looking for ways to exploit the current situation and manipulate others for their own advantage. The long-term vision of the ugly leader is purely about self-promotion. However, as bad as these leaders can be, they tend to achieve business results if only for the near-term. Working under ugly leaders, teams generally know where they stand and if the team can achieve results, the leader leaves them alone. Nevertheless, if the team causes that leader look ineffective, the leader quickly defaults to an extremely directive style to restore their reputations and ensure others receive the blame. Although the ugly leaders may show achievement, it comes at a tremendous cost to those around them; and too often these results are short-lived. Exhibiting the tendency toward command and control methods, similarly to the bad leaders, the ugly leaders often lack the cultivated relationships with their subordinates to be effective for the long

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