http://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-13-qualities-of-terrible-leaders-2015-6?utm_content=bufferde36a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
I am the best bad leader in the world.
Not only do I know everything about how to fail as a leader, but I also have spent large amounts of time with bad leaders.
This is a UNIQUE opportunity for you to hear what the top 13 qualities are of bad leaders.
All of the time I read articles, "Top 10 Qualities of GREAT Leaders."
Why do people write these articles? Were they great leaders?
I have no idea. In most cases it doesn't seem so. It seems like they
write a lot of articles about leaders. Study is one thing, writing is
the next thing, but doing and then repeating is how you learn.
So why do they write these articles?
They write them to get name recognition. They write them to get
consulting gigs. To be a life coach, maybe to other leaders or CEOs.
They write them to get speaking gigs.
And that technique works. I know this. If you write enough articles
about leadership, someone will pay you to teach them how to be a leader.
Try it and you'll see.
But I have to stick with what I know. I know a thing or two about good leadership. But good leadership is very rare.
I can count a list of good leaders on my two hands. Larry Page is a
good leader. Maybe Winston Churchill was a good leader but I don't know.
Sometimes, to be a little bit better, you just have to avoid the little bit worse.
So let's get started. The qualities of a bad leader.
1. Not understanding the 30/150 rule
A leader has to follow the 30 / 150 rule, or they will be a bad leader.
This rule has worked for 200,000 years. If a rule works for 2 years
then ignore it. If a rule has worked for 200,000 years then pay
attention to it.
For 200,000 years humans were tribes. Every tribe had a leader but
when the tribe got too big for one leader (more than 30 people), it
would split in two.
Then, around 70,000 years ago we evolved to handle tribes up to 150 people.
Then maybe 10,000 years ago we figured out how to be above 150
people. But this is so new, an evolutionary blip, that we screw it up
all the time.
But for each of these three categories (< 30 people, < 150
people, > 150 people) bad leaders have different opportunities to
prove themselves if they don't understand how the nature of leadership
changes based on size of population.
2. Under 30 people: Avoid one-on-one giving
If you are a leader of less than 30 people, you have to know
intimately the problems of all 30 people (or less) in your organization.
You have to know their skills. What they are good at. What they are bad at. What they want to be good at. What their dreams are.
Each person should be assigned ONE thing.
That's their responsibility. Bad leaders give people many things and
then those people do mediocre jobs at all of them instead of being
responsible for their one special egg they have to carry from one side
of the room to the other on a spoon.
When I was running a company with less than 30 people, I would take
random employees with me to meetings. This way they would see the effect
the company had on our clients. My goal: I knew I had limitations as a
leader. So I wanted my employees to be leaders.
Bad leaders get jealous of the people underneath them and never hire
people smarter than them. This is the #1 most common thing a bad leader
does.
Bad leaders don't want people to rise up higher than them. Good leaders train people to rise up higher than them.
Understand each of the 30 people at an intimate level. Know who their
parents are. Know what they do for fun. Help them maximize their
skills. Make them succeed and shine past you.
Bad leaders die lonely as the 30 people leave, one by one.
3. Above 3o people, but below 150: How to screw it up
When your organization is between 30 and 150, it's impossible for you to know everyone.
So make sure everyone is talking about everyone else. I want to be
able to ask A what B is like to work with and I want a real good answer.
The people reporting directly to you should be giving more than they are getting to the people working for them.
And then that's how the leader, indirectly, gets to know the entire
150 when he or she is putting together teams and assignments and trying
to inspire people for a common goal.
