Really bad leaders tend to put people in their place a lot/or keep them off balance to maintain control. -Michael Denisoff
A big part of what I do these days is call out and name bad behavior in organizations. By naming something that is bad, you can start to take away its power. And we see this manipulative behavior referenced in the quote above more often than we would hope in organizations. Often at the highest echelons.
These types of leaders tend to be sorted into two categories. First, is the executive who is a weak leader and probably not all that bright, so they tend to rely on fear and control to keep people in line. They would expect you to laugh at their bad jokes, never question them and stay in line. And although this is not effective leadership, I am amazed how many of these folks have made it in business. Often, they are in place to do the bidding for their boss because they are so easily controllable. Hence, they Kiss up and Kick down. Because they are weak and are not particularly intelligent, they depend solely on authority, fear, and power structures to survive. Even when their results are not that great, they are adept at shifting accountability away from them, often pining it on the underlings escaping any type of responsibility and somehow continuing to maintain their positions. This person’s cruelty and punitive nature is derived from their weaknesses and incompetence. I have had a couple of bosses like this in my career and consulted a few like this as well. How about you? In time most are found out but only after doing a lot of collateral damage to human beings. With the right method, they can be managed, overcome, and sometime exposed by a direct report.
The other leader with this approach as an orientation toward direct report is the opposite in pathology of the former explained above. Their cruelty is not necessary because they are weak but rather because they have chosen to be a professional bully/tyrant/intimidator. I mean they get particularly good at dominating and demeaning people while keeping them off balance through an array of tools all the while promoting a facade of a caring leader. These folks are intentional and have mastered, knowingly or unknowingly, things like neurolinguistic programming, manipulation, push-pull dominance, and somatic congruency. That is to say, they know exactly what they are doing and how to do it. They are really adept at manipulating their reports and sometimes even their bosses and peers. These are dangerous people. They are often highly successful with the numbers but have cultivated a bludgeoned and broke culture due to their handiwork. But often this gets ignored and justified by the powers that be because the numbers were met and/or they get promoted so fast they are rarely connected to the disastrous wake they left behind. These leaders are often very much entrenched, have built up alliances, and have made backroom deals. Are they untouchable? Often, they are, until they die and meet their maker. But until then, be aware of these folks and choose wisely how to navigate the situation or navigate a way out to a new boss.
fraud