Friday, September 2, 2011

Bad Leadership

Leadership is powerful. The power of a leader derives from the people who give up control of one aspect or another of the group and themselves to one. This dominion is given because it is very hard to administrate a large group of individuals en masse so we elect someone to LEAD.
A good leader can inspire individual people to do things that they have never done before.
A good leader can elevate the group of people to something they could never have achieved by themselves.
A good leader can amalgamate a diverse group into one.
A good leader knows his people.
A good leader listens carefully.
A good leader is driven towards a goal.
A good leader builds upon past success.
A good leader makes decisions for the group because that is his job.
A good leader knows what information to address to the group and what should be left to private.

A bad leader does not challenge people but relies on a few.
A bad leader brings the group down.
A bad leader divides the group and derides some.
A bad leader does not know everyone.
A bad leader disregards flippantly.
A bad leader flutters aimlessly.
A bad leader ignores and destroys what was good.
A bad leader constantly asks the group what should be done.
A bad leader bores the group with trivial matters that do not need to be shared.

When a group is lead by someone who knows how to lead, success and happiness follow seemingly effortlessly because the leader does the work he was elected to do behind the scenes for the benefit of the group, this allows the group to concentrate its collective efforts on bigger and better things. When a group is steered in a definite direction they can imagine what it will be like to reach that goal and keep that thought as an inspiration to keep them going when the labor becomes hard and it takes hard labor to build something beautiful.
Bad leadership is not always done on purpose, but often comes from the attitude that the office of leadership in and of itself is all that it takes to lead.
A good leader builds.
A bad leader erodes.