The Dark Side of Leadership

[Music]

leadership

when we hear that word our minds tend to

conjure up visions of strong

positive individuals who have profoundly

impacted those around them gandhi

martin luther king mandela these are

just a few of the individuals we

point towards as the epitome of positive

leadership

yet leadership is not always positive

and

it has another side negative leadership

numerous scholars have referred to

negative leaders

as the dark side of leadership

located in the dark side is destructive

leadership

which encompasses several styles of

leaders

among these are abusive toxic

narcissistic petty tierney and

pseudo-transformational

all of these leaders that reside in the

dark side

are known to belittle demean

insult their employers our employees

have you ever met a destructive leader

have you ever worked for a destructive

leader

how about this gentleman you may

recognize him

sith lord darth vader from star wars

now there’s little argument that darth

vader

was not a leader i mean after all he was

the supreme commander of the imperial

forces

but he’s not necessarily a leader you

want to report to

and he’s certainly not a leader you want

to become

but before we get into all that let’s

take a little deeper dive into the

definition

of destructive leadership and look at

some of the behavioral traits

we may find in these types of leaders

destructive leadership is defined as

behavior

by a leader that is perceived to be

harmful

intimidating or abusive towards their

followers

these individuals are known to

demonstrate

unwarranted negative behavior towards

their employees

well honestly simply because they can

an article in the global business and

research management

stated that destructive leaders

are psychologically harmful to their

employees

they disrupt the workplace they lower

job performance and they increase

employee turnover

when we look at the behavioral traits of

destructive leaders

some of the things that we’ll see

consist of

arrogance the need for power

bullying inability to inspire creativity

and lack of tolerance for heirs

so i asked you earlier if you have ever

worked for a destructive leader

if you said yes well you have been to

the dark side

if you display these traits that i just

mentioned

well bad news you are the dark side

and that brings us to the vader effect

the vader effect consists of reporting

to a supervisor that resides on the dark

side

of leadership that individual we

love to hate who can make or break our

day

and often makes our job a living hell

so let’s take a look at a couple

scenarios that fit the vader effect and

see if you can relate to any of them

in one scene of star wars we see darth

vader

force choke a member of the council

because he found his lack of faith

disturbing

arrogant move lord vader did not like

anybody questioning him when we

question or disagree with a destructive

leader

we often earn the title of traitor

someone who is dissenting from the ranks

and this is

unacceptable in the mind of a

destructive leader

therefore they will seek ways to

retaliate

examples of retaliation can consist of

lack of communication talking bad

behind your back and finding ways to

push you out of the ranks

feeder was seduced by the dark side

because he was

hungry for power a typical narcissistic

personality

it is the need for control and

recognition

that drives a narcissist to seek the

role of leadership

narcissists believe they are the most

important and smartest person in the

organization

and therefore they want to rule the

empire

just like vader narcissists will find

ways to expose your weaknesses

they have little empathy for their

employees

and they often have a lot of enemies

among their subordinates

but they don’t realize it well because

they’re a narcissist

third we look at inability

to inspire

in the workplace we want our employees

to be creative we want them to be

out of the box thinkers

but employees worry if they go too far

out of the box

they may suffer the wrath of their

supervisor

it’s hard for an employee to be creative

when they have darth vader breathing

down their neck

when we stifle creativity in the

workplace

we are actually stopping production

and not allowing our businesses to

expand

bullying

bullies do not like competition and they

will work

hard to eliminate anybody that could

expose them for

who they really are

bullying from a supervisor consists of

interpersonal aggression

that occurs frequently on a daily basis

bullies also don’t like apologies

they’re not interested in your mistakes

they want you to know that they are

ruthless and they should be

feared

remember juanita accidentally lost track

of the millennium falcon and he

apologized to darth vader well vader

said apology accepted as he proceeded

to murder him with a force joke

we are often told we should learn from

our mistakes

well that doesn’t really work when we

report to a destructive leader

destructive leaders have no tolerance

for errors

they take mistakes personally

they believe that you’re either inept at

doing your job

or are purposely trying to undermine

them

remember when the admiral accidentally

alerted the rebels instead of when they

were trying to surprise him

it didn’t end well for him

vader told him that he was as clumsy as

he was stupid

and that he had failed him for the last

time

as once again he proceeded to eliminate

somebody with a horse choke

when we work for our destructive leader

we worry every day about how we are

going to get through the day

the good news is there are steps that

you can take

yoda tells us that fear leads to anger

anger leads to hate and hate leads to

suffering

you might be wondering in this scenario

who exactly is suffering

trust me it’s not your supervisor it is

us the employees

the toxicity in the workplace doesn’t

stay when we leave the office

it trickles down into our private lives

it leaks into our relationships it makes

an

unhealthy per or a healthy person

unhealthy

and it lowers our self-esteem

there are several steps that you can

take

to work to work through these situations

number one you have to stand up for

yourself

because nobody else is going to do it

if you are allowing somebody to belittle

you

why wouldn’t they continue now i’m not

saying get aggressive

but i am saying you need to be assertive

it is okay to have a conversation with

your boss

about how they are acting with you

you are probably not going to get the

solution that you’re looking for

but you are going to have a better

understanding

and your boss is going to suspect that

you’re probably not going to tolerate

this behavior much longer

number two

get support spiritual counseling

mental health professional human

resource department

now i get it i see the eye rolls and i

hear the groans when i mention

hr i agree it is not easy to go and talk

to them

but it is a necessity if you’re not

doing that well aren’t you just part of

the problem

if we allow the behavior to continue and

just sweep it under the rug

why wouldn’t somebody continue when you

go into hr

go in with documentation

have facts you’re documenting this not

only for yourself

but others that may follow

if hr fails to intervene

or doesn’t take your situation seriously

well honestly you have your answer and

it’s probably time to move on

number three

address in the situation with an open

mind

are you the one being toxic how big was

that mistake you made

busy day does not necessarily constitute

a toxic boss

but if you’re the one that’s causing it

you need to take ownership

sometimes it’s not them it is us

you have to accept responsibility or you

are going to end up

on the dark side

last remember that the decision

is yours you are in control of your

destiny

you decide if you’re on the light side

or the dark side

nobody else can decide that but you

you can’t complain about a situation if

you are refusing to make changes

research shows us that if we replaced

a destructive leader with a constructive

leader

life would get better in the workplace

wouldn’t it be great if life was just

that simple

but the truth of the matter is our

administrators and ceos

they probably see your boss as a

go-getter

they don’t know that things are not

getting done

they don’t hear that turnover is

increasing

and this when they ignore the situation

all it does is empower

the destructive leader

until lawsuits are filed

customers are lost and production is

down

that’s when our ceos and administrators

wake up and take notice

so don’t wait for them take matters into

your own hands

vader eventually saw the error of his

ways but unfortunately it was too late

and as we know he perished

if you’re a destructive leader don’t be

a vader

seek coaching become a respected leader

if you report to a destructive leader

stay

on the light side seek

support stay physically healthy

dust off that resume and if necessary

get out no job

is worth sacrificing your self-esteem

so in the words of obi-wan kenobi

may the force be with you always thank

you

you