Chief Catalyst at Partnerships In Change. Partnering with leaders to create engaging cultures through coaching and team transformation.
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There is a popular saying that employees don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses. According to a 2019 study (download required) conducted by DDI, 57% of people quit a job “specifically because of their manager.” A Google search of the term “poor leadership” nets millions of results. Bad leadership is the subject of many studies and books, and there is no lack of evidence of the traits, qualities and behaviors that poor leaders exhibit to demotivate and discourage employees.
As an executive coach and consultant for decades, I have been retained to help teams and leaders navigate around poor leadership and to succeed inside a toxic culture. In my experience, bossy bosses, controlling bosses, micro-managing, hostile and insecure or absentee bosses still seem to continue to rise to and inhabit critical leadership roles in organizations. And what is the fallout of poor leadership? Disengagement, low morale and difficulty attracting and retaining top talent.
Gallup CEO Jim Clifton summarized it perfectly when he said, “The single biggest decision you make in your job — bigger than all the rest — is who you name manager... When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits — nothing.”
So, why, despite an abundance of well-researched leadership models, do we select those who are neither well-suited, trained or qualified to lead? The truth is most companies don’t set out to promote bad bosses.
Here are five reasons why bad bosses continue to rise through the ranks — even to some of the highest positions within organizations:
1. They're the best technical expert.
An erroneous and yet frequently applied principle is that the most qualified individual to lead the team is the person with the strongest technical expertise. The smartest, most well-educated, most accomplished individual contributor in a group may be making a significant impact in their area of expertise but may be completely out of his/her depth when it comes to coaching, training, guiding and leading others. The organization needs to recognize that skills applied to be a top expert in a given field may not necessarily be the skillset needed to lead others to excel in their own performance.
2. The company's career progression requires that they be promoted to manager.
Many companies fail to create meaningful, alternative career paths that result in salary growth and increased prestige that don't require a role in management. As a result, after years of working within the organization in various roles, many professionals see promotion to management as the only step up.
Nick Francis, co-founder of Help Scout, argues that “Career ladders should reward leadership, but that shouldn't be defined as how many direct reports someone has. If a designer on your team contributes to open source projects, writes and/or speaks regularly, and most importantly, raises the quality of work done by the entire team, they're exemplifying domain leadership. The last thing we'd want to do is force the designer to become a manager, because they clearly have valuable skills as a maker.”
3. They're promoted for results, in spite of bad behavior.
Many get promoted to leadership because they get results, perhaps extraordinary results, regardless of having a reputation of being a bully, manipulative, aggressive or even someone who makes ethically questionable decisions. These individuals, who use any means to get results, are valued by the company because they contribute significantly to the bottom line. As a result, the organization knowingly looks the other way or minimizes bad behavior and elevates them to the role of manager or leader. Promoting someone who gets results at the expense of healthy relationships, goodwill, teamwork or respectful collaboration sends the wrong message and is ultimately short-sighted. In the long run, the focus on profit over people takes a toll on culture, engagement and the brand.
4. They're not evaluated based on company values.
Some promotion decisions may seem solid based on the employee’s performance record, competencies and interests. But over time a leader who is not aligned with or living out the values of the organization will create a stressful environment for those they lead. Leadership behaviors and messaging that are not consistent with the culture create confusion and instability for employees as they try and respond to mixed messages about what is important in the company.
For example, an organization that espouses and promotes innovation as a core value may place someone in leadership who is consistently risk-averse and unable to adapt to change. Promotions to leadership should include an assessment of the leader's potential to demonstrate leadership skills as well as their ability to execute on core values essential to the success of the company.
5. They're not offered support, development and coaching.
Most new leaders want to do well and set out to do so. Many eagerly accept the responsibility to lead a team or manage a department in hopes of being a great leader. But many organizations do little or nothing to help newly promoted leaders succeed in what is an entirely new vocation. The best way to ensure they succeed — and the team gets the leadership they deserve — is to offer tools and resources to a new leader prior to promoting them. Then, help them transition into the role with the new team and ensure they have ongoing feedback and development as they grow into the role.
Now, more than ever, it is imperative that organizations identify, train and support the right individuals to lead. As the future of work continues to evolve in a post-pandemic world, we need leaders who are builders of talent, culturally sensitive and emotionally intelligent and who see their role as helping those they lead succeed beyond what they thought possible.
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