Negative Leadership Essay

According to Boseman (2008) “Leaders are afforded the opportunity to lead not because they are appointed by senior managers; they lead because they are perceived and accepted by followers as leaders. Two researchers, Jim Kouzes, and Barry Posner, conducted a research project to determine the top four characteristics that followers seek in leaders. They learned that followers want leaders who are honest, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent” (Para. 5). Furthermore, businesses and employees need their leaders to be involved with their team members and the business to help the employees and the business to succeed. The essay will describe a negative encounter with leadership, give an analysis of the leader’s behavior in the situation, and propose recommendations on how the quality of leadership could be improved.

Negative Leadership

The most negative leadership experience that I have had was working with a Special needs preschool teacher named Debbie. Some of the negative leadership behaviors included her not being in the classroom enough to help model, teach, and support the staff on how to work with the children. Her absence from the classroom created many

Leaders that have the laissez-faire style of leadership tend to be passive and uninvolved leaders. Instead of the leaders performing tasks at the place of work they tell their employees what needs to be done without any form of guidance and expect them to get the work accomplished (Malos, 2012). Debbie lets us know ahead of time what needed to be done and then we are responsible for figuring it out and doing the work. The laissez-faire style of leadership allows employees to have independence in their decisions concerning their work. Malos (2012) describes laissez-Faire leader as “allowing followers to have freedom and self-rule and only offering guidance when it is requested”(para.