Before jumping into bad leadership, let’s dive into what good leadership resembles. A good leader takes their direct reports’ future development seriously and crafts thoughtful action plans to ensure professional growth. A good leader empowers their team in decision-making, leads with empathy, allows members to be their true authentic selves, and creates a safe working environment. Lastly, a good leader is recognized by their peers, cross-partners, and leadership team as someone valued and trusted. The success of one’s team is not solely dependent on the team structure; it requires leadership to navigate cross-partners, competing organizational projects, and resources to ensure success in your role.
Hopefully, the above traits help you identify the type of leadership you currently experience. Being under poor leadership can cause significant professional setbacks, lack of recognition, failure to deliver key projects, missed promotions, an unhealthy work-life balance, and limited opportunities within your current organization. A bad leader can leave their team with a negative reputation within the organization due to their own low value and lack of trust from peers, cross-partners, and higher management.
The key point I want to emphasize is the importance of evaluating these traits and considerations before joining a new leader. It’s often said in my field, “people don’t work for organizations; they work for people.” Ensure that during the interview process, you ask questions about the succession path, key cross-partners and relationships critical to your role, team tenure, and examples of team members who have been promoted. These insights will help you better understand the leadership and growth opportunities within the team.
Remember, although you will be working under the name of a larger organization, your day-to-day interactions will be with your leader. This leader will significantly influence your professional path, determining whether you progress, stagnate, or even face setbacks.
