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Bad leadership is everywhere. If you’ve ever read this blog even once, you know most of my takes on all that — but here’s a quick refresher.
- Most companies have no idea how to value customers
- Instead, they chase profits like a dog in heat — totally missing the point of how profits are attained
Those are the “business model failings” of bad leadership. At the individual management level, it’s much more complicated — but to quickly break it down?
- Management isn’t intuitive: What got you there doesn’t make you good anymore
- Work is mostly a complex exercise in “avoid looking like a moron” and “constantly re-assert your relevance,” although we tend to over-complicate that in many ways
As a result of all this — and much more — bad leadership tends to be pretty pervasive in a lot of companies.
One of the reasons that bad leadership persists is hierarchy. “Game recognize game,” as they say, and “like recognize like.” That means profit-chasing d-bags who become “leaders” in organizations will, in turn, promote other profit-chasing d-bags to that perch. That’s why your company has a “Chief Strategy Officer” who does nothing all day but makes 8.5x what you do, and it’s why the majority of meetings you attend will make you want to self-immolate.
