What We Can Learn from Studying Bad Leaders

There are leadership authors, and then there are LEADERSHIP authors. I put myself in the former and Barbara Kellerman in the latter. As the author of 20 books on leadership and a professor at many institutions, including Dartmouth, Tufts and Harvard, where she is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy Center, Professor Kellerman is one whose leadership writings have deepened my knowledge.

Now, her new book, Leadership from Bad to Worse: What Happens When Bad Festers , is another one that spotlights what happens when leadership becomes toxic.

Professor Kellerman explained in a recent interview , “Why does humankind, forevermore, put up with what I call the social disease of bad leadership? We address physical diseases, cancer, heart disease and aids, and we address mental or psychological diseases such as schizophrenia. We attack all of those mental diseases, physical diseases, but we do not attack, we do not study, we do not think about what I call the social disease of bad leadership.” The consequences for a nation or an organization and its followers can be hazardous, not to mention dangerous.

4-step model

Kellerman sketches a four-part model that describes the journey from positive to negative.

·????? Phase I: Onward and Upward focuses on a better tomorrow

·????? Phase II: Followers Join In, attracted by the vision and its energy

·????? Phase III: Leader Starts In begins the crossing over into activities and practices that “left unchecked… will become worse leadership.”

·????? Phase IV: Bad to Worse – what may have started as benign has become malign and “dismal.”

The prologue clarifies that what constitutes bad leadership is not confined to autocracies. Kellerman writes that executives at WeWorks, Wells Fargo, Uber and Purdue "went from being bad to worse." She also calls out the toxicity of executives like Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Martin Winterkorn at VW. Holmes was a scammer; Winterkorn was a denier of emissions scandals.

A key point of Kellerman's book is that leaders are enabled by their followers, who join in the conspiracy of evil and support the individual in power. There are such things as "bad followers," who fail to hold the leader accountable and, in doing so, harm the organization and benefit from the leader's malfeasance.

Be vigilant

However, there is a light at the end of the misery of bad leadership. Kellerman sketches a 12-step plan: "The purpose of this list is particularly to provide ideas, information and instructions on how to know when bad leadership threatens and on what to do when it happens."

Notably, step 12 says, “Pay attention to the progression – the invariable, inexorable progression. Bad leaders who are not slowed or stopped in Phase I will proceed to Phase II…” right through Phases II, III and IV. In short, pay attention. Know the situation, context and behaviors of others. Proceed carefully and work with others to stop the slide into evil.

“We need to take a stand,” says Professor Kellerman . “And Leadership from Bad to Worse, I make very clear where I'm coming from. I make clear that I understand not every reader will agree with my values, my ideas, my opinions, but that's all we can do. We can just say where we're coming from, try to have some kind of minimal moral compass and forge ahead.”

By studying what is malign, Kellerman reminds us that the dark side of leadership is part of the human condition, and it behooves us to study and learn from it so that we are alert, aware and active for the betterment of leaders and followers.

Note: Watch my full LinkedIn Live interview with Barbara Kellerman here .

First posted on Forbes.com 5.08.2024

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