lOMoARcPSD|20941426

E X E C U T I V E F O R U M

How
Bad Leadership
Happens B Y B A R B A R A K E L L E R M A N

’ve been struck over the years by the degree to which the study of leadership has

I evolved slowly but certainly into the study of good leadership.The reasons for this
sunny but skewed view are multiple, ranging from our ancient proclivity to long
for a man—yes, a man—on a white horse to save us from ourselves to our newfound
conviction that leadership (good leadership) is a skill that can easily be learned to a
leadership language in which bad leaders are not even considered leaders but some-
thing else altogether. For example, in his seminal book, Leadership, James MacGregor
Burns makes a distinction between leaders and “power wielders.” He writes:“Power
wielders may treat people as things. Leaders may not.”

But accentuating the positive and neglecting the negative has costs. Imagine a med-
ical school that purports to teach about good health without teaching about bad
health.The fact is that we can no more promote good leadership without studying the
pathogenesis of bad leadership than we can promote strong, sturdy bodies without
studying the diseases that disable and fell them.

State of Nature

M ost of the world’s great political philosophers—for example, Plato, Machiavelli,

Hobbes, Mill, and Locke—believed that man, humankind, cannot be trusted
to behave wisely and well. As a consequence, they were less focused on the issue of
how to secure human rights and entitlements than they were on the problem of how
people in groups can best be ordered and organized.They argued in favor of what they
considered to be essential constraints, whether those of an autocratic regime, or those
of a dominant “Prince,” or those of the rule of law.

Even America’s founders were not so idealistic as is generally believed. As the Federalist
Papers testify, when the time came to codify a political system, Alexander Hamilton,

For bulk reprints of this article, please call 201-748-8771.

Winter 2005 41

Downloaded by Omar Ibrahim (janaale350@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|20941426

James Madison, and John Jay made their low, even bad leaders, because of their needs
most forceful argument on behalf of checks as members of a group.
and balances. Why? Because they did not
trust all of the people all of the time. As At the level of the individual, l e a d e rs usually
Clinton Rossiter observed, the Federalist Pa- satisfy our most basic human needs for
pers remind us of “both the light and dark safety, stability, and simplicity. The quest
sides of human nature—of man’s capacity for safety, for self-preservation, is arguabl y
for reason and justice that makes free gov- the strongest of these basic needs. This is a
Barbara Kellerman
ernment possible, of his capacity for passion is research director of point perhaps made most memorably by
and injustice that makes it necessary.” the Center for Public English philosopher Thomas Hobbes,
Leadership and lec- whose primary concern was how to main-
For those of us with an interest in leader- turer in public policy tain the public order when those who peo-
at Harvard Univer-
ship of any kind, the important readings in sity’s Kennedy School
ple the public realm lead lives that are
political theory are a tre a s u re trove. T h ey of Government. She “nasty” and “brutish.” But the point may be
remind us—as if we need reminding—that served as director of said to apply equally to the private realm—
l e a d e rs lead and followe rs follow not out of the Center for the that is, to a private sector in which wo r k-
Advanced Study of
the kindness of their collective hearts bu t ing stiffs feel obliged to go along with bad
Leadership at the
because it is in their self-interest. University of Mary- leaders in order to secure for themselves and
land and as executive their families the necessities of life.
To be sure, it’s easier for us to understand director of the Center
why leaders have an interest in leading than for Public Leadership, Similarly, we follow because our need for
and she is author and
to understand why followe rs have an inter- editor of many books
stability usually trumps our need for self-
est in following. The rewa rds of leading on leadership includ- expression. Even bad leaders can provide a
tend to be more obvious, and more ob- ing, most recently, sense of order and certainty in a disordered
viously coveted. T h ey include the many “Reinventing Leader- and uncertain world, and even bad leaders
ship: Making the
rights and re s o u rces typically associated can protect against angst, whether for rea-
Connection Between
with having powe r, authority, and influ- Politics and Business” sons real or imagined. Moreover, to re s i s t
ence. And they also include a greater degree and “Bad Leadership: leaders openly, to lodge a serious publ i c
of autonomy than is generally available to What It Is, How protest against them, is nearly always to in-
followers. It Happens, Why It vite confusion and upset. It’s demanding in
Matters.” Kellerman
a way that going along is not.
has written for the
The reasons why followers follow are, in New York Times,
comparison, o b s c u re. T h ey are especially Washington Post, Los Finally, we follow the leader because the
obscure when followe rs follow leaders who Angeles Times, and construct of the leader is itself a manifesta-
a re judged, in one or another way, to be Boston Globe among tion of our preference for simple as op-
many other publica-
bad. But we do have our reasons—our ex- tions, and she has
posed to complex explanations for why
cuses, if you will. At the most general level, appeared on CBS, things happen the way they do. Bill Gates
they fall into two categories. First, follow- NBC, PBS, CNN, has come to explain and even symbolize
e rs follow, even bad leaders , because of their and NPR. the stupendous success of Microsoft, just as
needs as individuals. Second, followers fol- ■
Cardinal Bernard Law has come to explain

42 Leader to Leader

Downloaded by Omar Ibrahim (janaale350@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|20941426

and even symbolize the corruption and cover-ups that suggest. Rather, bad leadership is like good leadership:
stained the reputation of the Roman Catholic Churc h . It is an exchange relationship that is complex and mu l t i-
In neither case was a single individual responsible for faceted and that, among other things, manifests itself in
everything that happened, good or bad. But in both different forms for different reasons.
cases it was easier for us to understand a story bu i l t
around a single main character than it was for us to fol- At the most basic level, bad leadership divides into two
low a plot peopled by a cast of thousands. categories: bad as in ineffective and bad as in unethical.
This distinction is not, I hasten to add, a theore t i c a l
At the level of the group, leaders provide benefits that construct. Look around you and you will find that all
range from maintaining order to providing cohesion and bad leadership falls into one, or sometimes both, of
identity to taking on the collective work. Despite the these categories.
fact that the last of these tasks is especially important, its
significance is not usually appre- I n e f f e c t ive leadership may be
ciated. But, as the great German conceived of quite simply: It is
s o c i o l ogist Ro b e r t Michels l e a d e rship that has failed to pro-
pointed out, all groups and or- duce the desired change. For rea-
■
ganizations, even those that place sons that include missing traits,
a high value on collective deci- Bad leadership weak skills, s t r a t e gies badly con-
sion-making, develop oligarchic c e ive d , and tactics badly em-
tendencies. Michel’s “iron law of divides into two ployed, ineffective leadership falls
oligarc hy ” states that there will short of its intention. Unethical
categories: ineffective
always be leaders because there leadership, in contrast, is about
will always be a need to charge and unethical. right and wrong. Unethical lead-
some individuals with getting ■ ership can be effective leader-
the group’s work done. ship, just as ineffective leaders h i p
can be ethical. But unethical
Types of leadership cannot make even the
most basic claim to decency and
Bad Leadership
good conduct, and so the leadership process is defil e d .

A s my recently published book Bad Leadership tes-

t i fie s , I took seriously my own earlier complaint
that leadership studies were badly diminished by our
But if this most basic division—in which bad leadership
is ineffective, or unethical, or both—is necessary to un-
fixation on good leadership at the expense of bad lead- derstand the nature of the beast, it is not sufficient. After
ership. As I put it in an essay titled,“Hitler’s Ghost: A looking at hundreds of contemporary cases of bad lead-
Manifesto,” for us to “learn leadership without learning ership, cases that involved bad leaders and bad followe rs
Hitler is to whistle in the dark.” in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, and in groups
and organizations both at home and abroad, I found that
But what became clear as I began to look at bad lead- examples of bad leadership re flected seven different pat-
ership in depth was that it is more richly textured than terns of bad behavior. Generally they fall along a con-
the simple divide between good and evil would seem to tinuum that ranges from ineffective to unethical:

Winter 2005 43

Downloaded by Omar Ibrahim (janaale350@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|20941426

• Incompetent leadership: The leader and at least some ogy of traditional, rational, and charismatic leadership—
followers lack the will and skill (or both) to sustain the word type does not mean personality type. Instead,
effective action. With regard to at least one impor- it refers to a set of behav i o rs that resulted in (unwanted)
tant leadership challenge, they fail to create positive change of some sort, and that engaged both the leader
change. and at least some followers.
• Rigid leadership: The leader and at least some follow-
ers are stiff and unyielding. Although they may be
The Web
competent, they are unable or unwilling to adapt to
new ideas, new information, or changing times.
• Intemperate leadership: The leader lacks self-control
and is aided and abetted by followers who are
T hat followers matter is a presumption now widely
shared. Still, even scholars of leadership tend to ex-
aggerate the importance of leaders and diminish the
unwilling or unable to intervene effectively. importance of followers.
• Callous leadership: The leader
and at least some followers Moreover, it is often assumed that
are uncaring or unkind. one size fits all—that what applies
Ignored or discounted are to leaders and followers in one
the needs, wants, and wishes situation applies as well to leaders
■
of most members of the and followers in another situa-
group or organization, Leaders cannot tion. While in theory we know
especially subordinates. this to be ridiculous, in practice
do harm without followers we play down the significance of
• Corrupt leadership: The leader
and at least some followers who enable them. context just as we play down the
lie, cheat, or steal. To a degree ■
significance of followe rs .
that exceeds the norm, they
put self-interest ahead of the Put another way, to teach a
public interest. roomful of students—whether
• Insular leadership: The leader u n d e r graduates or graduate stu-
and at least some followers dents or adults seeking to have a
minimize or disregard the health and welfare of the greater personal and professional impact—a set of leader-
“other,” that is, of those outside the group or orga- ship skills is probably less effective than we would like to
nization for which they are directly responsible. imagine. As my close look at bad leadership confirmed,
• Evil leadership: The leader and at least some followers l e a d e rship is a web in which three separate and distinct
commit atrocities. T h ey use pain as an instrument of strands—the leader, the followe rs , and the context—are
power. The harm done to men, women, and children inextricably tangled. My study of leaders as diverse as Mary
is severe rather than slight, and it can be physical, Meeker,the discredited stock analyst known as the Queen
psychological, or both. of the Internet,Serbian strongman Radovan Karadzic,for-
mer New York Times managing editor Howell Raines,
Note that this is emphatically not a typology of bad sadistic cult leader David Koresh, former Washington,
leaders, but rather of bad leadership. As I use it—in- D.C., mayor and crack addict Marion Barry Jr.,and Leona
deed as it was used by Max Weber in his classic typol- Helmsley, the convicted hotel executive, only served to

44 Leader to Leader

Downloaded by Omar Ibrahim (janaale350@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|20941426

How Leaders, and Followers,

Can Increase the Probability of Good Leadership
and Decrease the Probability of Bad Leadership
FOR LEADERS . . . more likely than their worka- the leader ahead of the interests
holic counterparts to have a of the group, the group’s in
• Limit your tenure. When leaders
healthy professional life. trouble.
remain in positions of power for
too long, they acquire bad habits. • Be reflective.Virtually every • Be skeptical. Leaders are not
one of the great writers on gods. They should be awarded
• Share power. When power is
leadership emphasizes the im- no more, and no less, than the
centralized, it’s likely to be
portance of self-knowledge, loyalty they earn.
misused—or abused.
self-control, and good habits.
• Get real. Stay real.Virtually • Be a watchdog. Ignorance is
every bad leader is, to a degree, not bliss.
FOR FOLLOWERS . . .
out of touch with reality.
• Empower yourself. People • Take a stand. Pliant boards,
• Compensate for your weak- who think themselves followers craven aides, scared subordinates,
nesses. Leaders should sur- don’t think themselves powerful. submissive underlings, and pas-
round themselves with those But they—we—are. Or, more sive bystanders are as much to
who know most about what accurately, they, we, can be. blame for bad leadership as are
they know least. bad leaders.
• Be loyal to the whole and not
• Stay balanced. Leaders who to any single individual. When • Find allies. In numbers there is
have a healthy personal life are followers put the interests of strength.

confirm that it’s impossible to separate one from the other, would argue that it’s impossible for anyone to learn how
to separate leaders from those who follow them and from to be a good leader without at the same time learning
the specifics of the situation in which their stories unfold. how to be a good follower. And I would further argue
that this particular learning experience will be signifi-
So, it’s impossible to teach about, learn about, leadership cantly enhanced if it takes into account the specifics of
without teaching about, learning about, followership. And the situation in which change is supposed to take place.
it is impossible to teach or learn about either leaders h i p
or followe rship without teaching and learning about the
Stopping or Slowing Bad Leadership
context in which both are necessarily embedded.

Does this mean it’s impossible for people to learn some-

thing about how to be a good leader? Not at all. But I
W hile context matters, my study of bad leadership
suggests this universal truth: Leaders cannot do
harm without followers who enable them. Al Dunlap,

Winter 2005 45

Downloaded by Omar Ibrahim (janaale350@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|20941426

former chairman of the Sunbeam Corporation, could One could plausibly argue that the fact that there’s
not have been so outrageously callous had he not been blame to go around is heartening. For what soon be-
surrounded by deferential aides, a pliant board , and comes clear is that stopping or slowing bad leadership
complacent stockholders, all of whom let him get away is possible at many points in the process. And what soon
with being bad. Andrew Fastow, becomes clear is that stopping
Enron’s onetime chief financial or slowing bad leadership is a
officer, could not have been so ■
responsibility that can be, that
e gre giously cor rupt had his should be, widely shared.
schemes not been given full and Bad leadership
a c t ive support by a small cast is a social disease. Bad leadership is a social disease
of characters, both within the with damaging and sometimes
■
c o m p a ny and outside it. A n d even deadly consequences. Yet
President Bill Clinton could not for reasons that defy logic, as well
have ignored the genocide in as our own experience, we typi-
Rwanda had key members of his foreign policy team, cally stick our heads in the sand, hoping that if we ignore
or key members of the House and Senate, or at least it, bad leadership will go away. But count on it: in those
some of his key constituents, taken the time and trou- situations in which no one lifts a finger to stop it, or at
ble to lodge loud protests. least to slow it once it start s , bad leadership will pers i s t . ■

46 Leader to Leader

Downloaded by Omar Ibrahim (janaale350@gmail.com)