By | Steven Spatz | www.theladders.com
We hear all the time about what great leaders should be like.
- How they’re empathetic
- How they’re humble, yet driven
- How they’re transparent, ethical, inspiring
But what about the traits that make for poor leaders? I’ve worked for a variety of editors and CEOs over my career — for leaders who were inspiring and for leaders who were cancerous — and in reflecting on what sort of leader I want to be, now, I draw from those negative experiences just as often as I do the positive ones.
Ultimately, I believe we have to know how not to operate in order to be the most effective versions of ourselves.
Here are the most harmful habits and traits I strive to avoid.
1. Operating with a lack of trust and transparency
Dishonesty is cancerous and difficult to cloak.
Which is to say, it poisons morale and makes your employees dislike you. And poisoned morale, of course, disrupts productivity and hinders your company’s overall capacity for operating effectively.