This article looks at four leadership traits that are damaging your organizational culture and proposes specific ways of dealing with them:
- I know best – manage out of the business
- I’ve no time – re-direct their energy to supporting their team and reports
- Keep trying – coach them to follow through with practical support
- Distant and judgemental – remove
Leaders define the organizational culture of your organization.
That’s a strength, but it’s also a real risk. After all, if we’re generous, half of the leaders you’ve worked for should never have had leadership responsibilities. They may not be disastrous or destructive, but they do not add the value that their paycheck implies they should. And leaders have a direct impact on employee retention and team development.
Primarily, leaders must embody your organizational values. We look to leadership to see how things should be done…and to understand what we can get away with. And how a leader behaves, thinks and communicates will do more to cement your organizational values than even the best-resourced and financed internal comms team.
Toxic leadership styles
There are many forms of poor leadership. But we’re going to focus on four leadership styles that we need to be able to recognize quickly and address. They are subtle but toxic. They can superficially appear to be constructive, but in reality, can destroy inclusion and motivation. When we talk about leadership accountability, we need to talk behaviors as well as business outputs. These traits will destroy inclusive leadership, organizational values and employee retention.
When Alice went to Wonderland, she encountered caricatures of Victorian England – and four of these figures match those traits we want to avoid – just as Alice would have been better off avoiding them!
- I Know Best – The Queen of Hearts
- I’ve no time – The White Rabbit
- Keep trying – The Cheshire Cat
- Distant and judgmental – the Jabberwock
Firstly, the Queen of Hearts
She is certainly consistent in her inconsistency. She shuts down all contrary opinions except her own. There is only discussion that agrees with her and anything that doesn’t conform is pushed away.
She has convinced those around her that it’s better this way. It provides security in knowing they don’t need to make decisions or take risks. But it’s not healthy for the business and will drive away those gifted people who generate innovation and creativity.
In many businesses, this is the leader who says, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ They shut down conversations about changing processes, they resist change, but they’ve grown a powerbase over time. They may be a former star of the business from a few years back, but now their reputation is all they have left.
The Queen of Hearts needs to be managed out of the business. They are often bullies but are always destructive. They encourage conformity and discourage discussion. It is impossible to create psychological safety while the Queen of Hearts presides over the court. The Queen of Hearts is the enemy of team development because it’s always about her.
Secondly, the White Rabbit
The White Rabbit seems like the perfect employee on the surface. They are incredibly busy and show their energy to everyone. They run around showing how busy they are, but when you probe a little bit, there is no output. They don’t use the time to invest in people or tasks. They create a sense of urgency, when calm appraisal may be better.
They appear to be an inclusive leader, but actually, they are too distant and too superficial to be a positive influence on the team.
As a leader, the White Rabbit is so busy showing their superiors how busy they are, they ignore their own team. They never have enough time to encourage, motivate or develop. They don’t support their team and may not meet with them very often. In fact, when they do have a one-to-one with a report, it’s probably either to talk about their own busyness or to berate the employee for making them look bad.
The White Rabbit will drive away talent. If your leader is not invested in you, you’re never sure of where you stand. You remain unseen, unheard and unvalued. To the White Rabbit, you’re someone to be blamed or from whom credit will be stolen. You can recognize them when your employee retention drops and your teams don’t grow as you expect.
A White Rabbit can be converted. Slow them down and show that you value their output more than their presence. Demonstrate how you want to develop them in the way that they should be developing their team.
Thirdly, the Cheshire Cat
In the book, Cheshire Cat annoys me most. He has a lot of wise things to say but is never around when he’s needed most. Much of what he says is ambiguous and has little practical value. But he’s clearly intelligent and wise and could really help Alice.
You have several Cheshire Cats in your organization. They volunteer to be mentors and to lead initiatives and are really disappointed that the timing didn’t quite work out. They come to a meeting and make an insightful comment, but don’t have any practical solutions. They know all the organizational values by heart, but don’t actually change their way of doing things to account for them.
They are extremely cheerful, encouraging and motivational, but aren’t quite able to give practical support. They are great listeners and may even be great coaches – but lack specificity and application. You like them, but you’re left trying very hard to remember what they said.
To save a Cheshire Cat, coach them to document the practical suggestions they can follow through on. Help them to turn their insight into strategy and development for their teams.
And finally, the Jabberwock
Lewis Carroll rejected the first image created to represent Jabberwock in the first edition of Alice in Wonderland because he thought it was too scary for children. And the Jabberwock leader is the scariest for a business.
They have a reputation for getting things done. They are direct, concise, task-oriented and lurk in an office – like the principal of a fee-paying school. When you hear their footsteps in the corridor, you quickly straighten your clothes, tidy your desk and sit up straight. You’re desperate to avoid making a mistake or displeasing them.
The C-Suite loves them because they deliver. If the CEO gives a three-month deadline, they’ll deliver in two; if they ask for $5 million growth, Jabberwock will develop $6 million – just because.
But neither will you take a risk. You won’t challenge them, even when they ask for feedback. You might fear them, even respect them, but they don’t inspire you. The turnover in their team is high – ‘an acceptable cost’ to them. People take sideways moves or leave the business when their project is assigned to the Jabberwock.
And your career is over if you report them for bullying, discrimination, or aggressive behavior. But everyone knows about them. Their file is full of praise and commendations. The shredder is full of withdrawn complaints.
The Jabberwock must be removed. Use the performance management system or disciplinary processes to save your employees from this damaging person.
Regardless of their record of delivering, a Jabberwock is holding your organization back. People will find ways around them or will move. You cannot be an inclusive organization if you tolerate a Jabberwock. And without inclusion, you won’t have the best talent, the best ideas or the best relationships with either your employees or customers.
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