I had significant exposure to negative leadership behaviors with my first real job that began shortly after I graduated from high school. I worked with “Larry” for over 12 years and until about six years ago, he was also the primary source of nearly everything I knew about running a business and managing people. I intentionally use the word “managing” because what he was doing was definitely not leading. He literally demanded respect and those that fell short were not around for very long. Larry had over 20 years of management experience, was what most would consider moderately successful financially, and seemed happy with his life so I never saw much reason to doubt him or his ways.
Looking back Larry was really just a “boss” who was primarily a dictator of people and processes. He did not understand the concept that “you get Assigned Leadership by your position and you display Emergent Leadership by influencing people to do great things” (Clark, 2010, p. 1). Larry could have become a much better leader by embracing this simple concept. He failed as a leader because he always put himself, not his followers or the organization, first. In general he did not like people very much and made it no secret that he saw them as a necessary evil of running a business. Larry’s negative leadership characteristics are difficult to narrow, but had he been interested in becoming an effective leader there are two areas where he could have started: offering timely and constructive feedback especially during performance appraisals and demonstrating ethical business practices. I believe taking a leadership rather than a managerial approach to these two areas would have gone a long way toward helping Larry transition from a feared manag...
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...f those who work so hard to make me look good. The road to unlearning some of the bad habits established under Larry’s tutelage has been long and bumpy at times, but the patience of an excellent mentor and the desire to be better inspired me to commit to getting back in school and finish that degree that slipped away from me over 16 years ago.
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According to Brad the characteristics of management that contribute to success can be broken into six categories. The first one being a...
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The experience with my negative leader I will name Mohammad Smith the Authoritarian. I have learned as much from this poor leader as I have from strong leaders. This negative leadership style decreases the motivation of employees because it makes them feel as though they can’t respond with any initiative or creativity. This leader did not like the team to attempt questioning his directives, because he then puts on the defensive front. This leader was worried more about his status and saw his team members as subordinates or lesser people. When working projects with his team, he would tell them what he wanted done and how to accomplish and not discuss and receive advice from them. A bad supervisor is the leading cause of job dissatisfaction with jobs.
I have been fortunate to work with several heads of departments within a couple years of graduating college. During this time, I have worked with quality leaders and not so great ones. The quality leaders were competent, skillful and endowed with people skills. These leaders gave me the opportunity to grow and a sense of purpose. After reading The Leadership Advantage by Warren Bennis, I was quickly reminded about a former superior of mine that lacked the understanding and knowledge of what qualities a leader should have. The company also did not entertain a culture that promotes employee satisfaction.
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Almost everyone has had the misfortune of having a leader that should not be in the position of leading others. Unfortunately, I have been in that position. I have had bad managers and supervisors in not just one job, but in two entirely different jobs. One of the jobs was a nutrition associate in a hospital kitchen. The other job was at the restaurant, Cracker Barrel, as a hostess. I will be pulling my experience from both jobs to explain why these leaders were not fit for the position that they held and what they could have done different to be a more effective leader.
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Over the past hundred years management has continuously been evolving. There have been a wide range of approaches in how to deal with management or better yet how to improve management functions in our ever changing environment. From as early as 1100 B.C managers have been struggling with the same issues and problems that manager’s face today. Modern managers use many of the practices, principles, and techniques developed from earlier concepts and experiences.
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Effective leaders according to (Sheninger, 2013), says, “Effective leadership is essential for any organization and school to be successful. Great leaders are always critically analyzing ways in which he/she can improve in order to achieve an array of goals. This is especially the case in education where strong and bold leadership is needed during this tumultuous time. To my mind, we all have the capacity to lead. It is through leadership that we become catalysts for positive change. Once sustainable change takes hold, we will see the fruits of our labor in the form of transformed teaching and learning practices amongst learners and in ourselves. This cannot happen without effective leadership”. Ineffective leadership is the total opposite. I believe it takes time to be an ineffective leader. When a person first starts working toward being an ineffective leader, at some point they were good ones. I think if a person has been with a job so long and become unhappy with the organization as a whole. They tend to change and instead of going somewhere else they stay and become inefficient. According to (Mack, 1999). “Knowing how to lead effectively can mean the difference between success and failure. Ineffective leadership leads to disillusionment, quitting, and tension in a wide array of endeavors such as business, team sports, and politics. Ineffective leaders lack the courage to tackle difficult problems, often shifting blame to others. Knowing what traits characterize ineffective leaders is useful because it can offer a reference point for what not to do as a
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