Let's finally stand up to evil leadership – 5 things we can do today

Putin's attack on Ukraine blatantly reminds us of the evil side of leadership. Not only has he done the unthinkable (again) and attacked another country and its people. He has launched the largest ground war in Europe since WWII. He has also systematically reframed reality over the last decade. I myself, as many of us, have had a more and more queasy feeling about Putin and Russia's politics in the last years. Yet I did not get myself to act, or to take a more radical – a more appropriate – stance. I did think more than once "well maybe NATO did in fact venture East against an agreement,” and questioned my harsh judgement on Russia's aggressive foreign policy. We humans are not good in calling out bad and evil leadership. But given the state the world is in we better learn quickly!

In the last days I have spent many hours pondering and talking to friends and family. I try to make sense of what has become of my world. It is a weird feeling of despair, a feeling of powerlessness and sorrow watching Ukrainians being killed and displaced. A feeling of Europe being physically under attack. A fear of how bad it can still get. After all, I didn't see this coming. So am I just naive to think WWIII sounds absurd?

But there is also a strange feeling of clarity and relief. The relief that the gaslighting has ended.("Gaslighting?is a colloquialism, loosely defined as making someone question their own reality.") No longer am I allowing Putin – or any other autocrat for that matter, Trump included – to distort my view on reality. As do Europe and the EU, as well as the NATO countries. It feels like Putin's attack made us wake up to what we really are about, what we stand for.

While it may seem farfetched to you, I believe that this act of breaking the gaslighting spell and reclaiming our view on reality is not only the way to combat the autocrats of this world. I believe the same act is needed toward bad and evil leadership in our everyday business and work lives. If in these troubled days we learn to fight back the autocrats of this world, we also learn about ending bad leadership in our everyday lives. And vice versa, what works on your abusive boss might also topple a tyrant.

Evil leadership is everywhere we look

The politician who embezzled taxpayer money takes a sabbatical in the private sector and reappears a few short years later at the right time and with the right messages. All is forgotten. The priest who is known to have sexually abused children is not charged and brought to justice, but moved to a different diocese where nobody knows him. Some (halfhearted) coaching, therapy, or just praying surely will transform him. The narcissist business leader who pushes his team members into exhaustion with a mix of dominance and coaxing gets sacked, but then is hired by the competition.

Unethical, bad, evil leadership. The dark side. Call it what you want. It is paramount, and for understandable reasons: Bad leadership can get you far. Take Narcissistic personality disorder?(NPD): It is not necessarily a bad thing to have as a leader. Feeling important and craving admiration may fuel you to climb the ladder. Prioritizing yourself over others might not be contemporary best practice, but often it gets you where you need to be. Studies show that narcissist traits are perceived by many as "leader-like", showing dominance and charisma. Narcissists are more likely to emerge as leader in a group of non-leaders. Yet we know narcissistic personality disorder causes harm in others, prevents successful change and transformation.

And there are other traits of evil leadership: Barbara Kellerman, a Harvard professor on public leadership and former advisory board member at LEAD, has extensively reviewed the dark side of leadership and finds seven primary types of bad leadership. She also shows how followers collaborate with bad leaders, sometimes even cause bad leadership. And this, as Maura Reynolds writes in Politico Magazin on a conversation with Fiona Hill, is happening as well with Putin – bad followership: "...patterns include Western businesses who fail to see how they help build a tyrant’s war chest, admirers enamored of an autocrat’s 'strength' and politicians’ tendency to point fingers inward for political gain instead of working together for their nation’s security."

In my own career, I have come in close contact with numerous cases of bad leadership, and I have personally been affected more than once. One time things got so bad, my body caved in under the stress and pressure. I got a strong ringing in my ear that took weeks to subside. I still remember seeking refuge in my yoga practice. One day I came to class and found myself shedding tears throughout the entire 90 minutes of the class. Thank God I sat in the very front and no one took notice...

One hugely important disclaimer: There is of course a danger in labeling others as "evil" without checking yourself. Good leadership, good intentions, bad leadership, manipulation, evil leadership. This is all murky territory and the lines blur. No leader is free of negative traits and it is our job to constantly improve and check ourselves. And most of the times we help our leaders change and get better. I myself just got some clear feedback from my team which I will have to chew on, understand, and then apply to my practice of leadership. But when a line is crossed, when people are seriously harmed, when ethics are abandoned the story is a different one.

We systematically fail in dealing with the dark side of leadership

If evil leadership is so widespread, if the pain inflicted is so tremendous, the damage done so extensive – why then do we not call out a bad leader? Why do we hardly ever properly sanction leaders who do wrong again and again? Why can't we stop the Putins of this world more effectively? Why do we meet them with halfhearted responses? Why, in the business context, do we simply move bad leaders on to other posts, out of the way? Why do we allow them to continue to lead, to inflict harm, and to abuse their power?

It is a conundrum of bad leadership that has sat with me for a long time. I have seen people practicing bad leadership being defended by their followers, even by myself. I have seen the gaslighting, the distortion and reframing of realities – done purposefully by some and subconsciously by others. Often, it happens over time and no single wrongdoing is so extreme that it warrants a hefty response. After all, who wants to be an alarmist in their organization? In his early days, Putin seemed like just another Russian leader who posed topless on a horse. Stereotypical masculinity - cute, but so what. When all the bots started appearing on social media and it became clear those are coordinated, well, it was easier looking the other way. And of course, beneficiaries like Trump made sure the narrative wouldn't stick. Then Georgia, then Crimea, and now this madness. It took a looooong time for us to wake up.

We have to admit, as humans we might not be naturally equipped in the best way to handle abusive leaders. Probably there are good reasons in evolution and anthropology, but those don't excuse anything.

It is time for us to develop tools and practices to stop evil leadership before it takes root.

We can break the spell of evil leadership

In the end, the shit show has a chance to stop if one of us stands up. #metoo was so empowering because it broke the spell. Every single woman who stood up for herself and others is a heroine and deserves our deepest respect. Every employee who talks to their ombudsperson about abusive leadership is a hero in their own right. These are acts of heroism because they require the incredible work of shifting our distorted view of reality back in focus. End the mindfuck. See clearly again. Pulling yourself out of the swamp by your own hair.

Yes, often we may be too small to change a whole system. And the leaders we seek to correct may overpower us. But let's not get disheartened. Here are five ideas of what we can do:

1. Create objectivity. Especially with all the gaslighting surrounding evil leadership this is essential for your own peace of mind. In a work context take notes, invite others to the meeting, write minutes and share them, create a paper trail. Many sites telling us what we can do for Ukraine start by urging us to read first hand accounts of what's really going on.
2. Talk. This is important for two reasons. First, you need to reaffirm your own facts in the face of distortion. (Your friends and allies may even correct you in case you just dreamt up the idea of your boss being a bully because it makes it easier for you to not live up to your tasks. Most likely they will support you.) And second, once bully leaders have been around moving from organization to organization, telling objective facts about them helps others in their sensemaking and warns them.
3. Awaken your warrior. Once you have broken the spell and found your clarity, act. Yes, this is dangerous, and you may lose the fight. But as history has proven so many countless times: our collective silence paves the dictator's way to power.
4. Ridicule the power. Humor is such a wonderful means to topple the powerful. At the massive anti-war demonstration last Sunday in Berlin, I was constantly smiling because of the creative and witty signposts I read all around me.
5. Walk away. If it is an option consider walking away. The Ukrainian people might find this a cynical recommendation. But in the work context this may be possible and a healthy solution. You start your healing by claiming your right for a healthy work environment.

I would love to hear from you: What are your experiences with bad and evil leadership? What works to break the spell? What can we do about the bully boss at work? And what to do about this Russian tyrant?