[November 24, 2015] Leadership is certainly not easy, but no one who has taken such a position does so with the intent to do a bad job of it. Poor leadership – that can be described as being ineffective – is also not something that comes about due to a single error or bad decision but from a series of acts and decisions.1 Like a car wreck, there is rarely a single cause for poor leadership.
For example, when in 1876, George Armstrong Custer’s small force of 700 men were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, it was not one decision that led to the disaster but several. Custer had underestimated Indian numbers and willingness to fight, ignored his scouts’ warnings, violated standard fighting discipline by dividing his force, failed to wait for more forces which were en route to his location, and was over eager to attack. In addition, many of his troopers were inexperienced in combat.
Ideally poor leadership is addressed early. With good mentors and a system that encourages positive criticism and relevant experience to gain resilience, leader skills can be often improved. Very poor leaders will either improve or can be removed. It takes moral courage for leaders to help poor leaders and not allow poor leadership to unnecessarily affect others.
The current controversies at some American universities provide us with ample evidence that their many administrators have not developed good leadership skills to address controversy and rising student protests. Often we see pandering to students who make foolish or illegal demands; such as free tuition for select students based on race, firing of university presidents, racial quotas for faculty hiring, banning private speech, etc.2 We also see a historical failure to address the tension between free speech, the expression of ideas, and academic freedom.3
Bad decisions and bad acts accumulate. Leaders who take their positions for personal gain (status, money, etc.), for leverage or power over others, or for revenge are more likely to make poor decisions and take inappropriate actions. Failure to act when required is just as bad as acting in bad faith. Sadly, this is all too common. The lack of moral courage in senior leaders encourages poor leadership to flourish.
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- I make a distinction between poor (bad or ineffective) leadership and evil leadership which are quite different. Evil leadership can be very effective and can employ the many positive traits of leadership as espoused here in theLeaderMaker.com.
- http://www.thedemands.org/ Note that some of their demands were reasonable like increased psychological therapy for students.
- https://www.theleadermaker.com/university-leadership-is-it-real/