Negative Leadership Behavior

Negative Leadership Behavior

There are many examples of poor leadership behavior in today’s workplace. Inadequate leadership can be detrimental not only to a team within an organization, but also to the entire organization itself. I believe it is vital for upper management to ensure that their leaders are properly trained and aware of how to handle certain situations and employees. When a leader’s weaknesses are overlooked, large problems occur.

Example of Negative Leadership

At my previous place of employment, I had many effective and helpful leaders. I also had some that were somewhat poor, and some that were downright awful. There was one leader who stood out the most to me as an example of negative leadership behavior. She was a pleasant person, and very likeable and hard working, but she possessed one major leadership fault that constantly caused frustration and hindered her and her employees from advancing.

The fault that my previous leader possessed was an inability or refusal to delegate. Delegation is the act of giving some sort of power or responsibility to another person. This supervisor was a self-proclaimed workaholic, who consistently refused to allocate responsibilities to her employees. Furthermore, an employee coming to her with an issue or for assistance would be informed that this supervisor would just “take care of it”. In many instances, this would be the last the employee would hear of the situation. Many of the employees had worked for her years and knew there was no use arguing or attempting to stay involved in the situation until its resolution. This supervisor was also very high-stress at all times and always seemed tired and overworked. She still refused to designate responsibilities to others, ...

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...ship is likely a very common one today. If only more leaders were aware of it, I believe it could be avoided in many cases. Such a seemingly small thing can cause so much damage in an organization, whether internally, externally, or both. It is unfortunate that misunderstandings such as belief that a larger workload demonstrates more dedication can cause such damage to a company’s success. However, with the proper knowledge and education in this matter, these situations can and should be reversed and improved.

Works Cited

Black Enterprise, (2010, September). Lose control. Black Enterprise, 41(2), 105.

Leadership-skills-for-life.com. (2008). Leadership-skills-for-life.com. Retrieved from http://www.leadership-skills-for-life.com/how-to-delegate.html

Walker, C.A. (2002, April). Saving your rookie managers from themselves. Harvard Business Review, 80(4), 97-102.