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