Often I write here about what makes a good leader. Today I'm going to give a scenario of what doesn't make a good leader.

As a consultant, often I talk to a lot of people to find out what's really going on in their work areas. Sometimes I'm surprised by what I hear; sometimes I'm not. When I get a chance to educate someone on a concept that they don't know about, something that the person they report to believes they know, I always relish the opportunity, and those people usually enjoy learning something new also.

Also, as a consultant, even when I'm in a leadership position, I usually like to share what's going on in the department with other leadership staff, whether they also report to me or not, because I believe that all information shared is a good thing. It gives everyone a chance to understand what's going on, and, when I leave, it allows them to continue some of the things I might put into practice so that the department will continue to grow.

However, what sometimes happens is the present leadership, instead of feeling like they're getting a chance to progress, feels like they're being shown up, not so much by me as the consultant, but by the people who may report to them. They feel as though they're being made to look bad, as though they're not doing their job, and they don't like it. So, unfortunately, they'll go and confront the people who talkd to me, or another consultant, and complain to them about being made to look bad in some fashion.

That messes things up in two ways. One, it makes the people who talk to me feel as though they should have kept their mouths shut because maybe I've made things worse. Or two, it makes the person who went to them look petty and small in their eyes, which isn't good because I'll be leaving at some point, and if their own credibility has been damaged, then things will definitely be worse when I leave.

Some of you may ask why I shared the information in the first place. There's two types of information in situations like this. There's confidential information, which of course you never tell. Then there's departmental or employee improvement, which you share because it's why I'm there in the first place. However, knowing that the leadership might react in such a way, it makes someone like me suddenly wary of sharing any information, and of course that defeats the purpose of why I'm there, and doesn't end up doing the client any good.

Real leaders don't worry about whether they may look bad or not when someone offers help. Real leaders never chastise someone for telling the truth, or for asking questions, or for trying to learn more so they can do whatever they need to learn so they can be better. Bad leaders only care about how they look, and nothing else, no matter how much they pretend.

How did I handle this particular issue? I didn't; the employee stood up to the other person, told it like it was, and that was that. There's something about long time employees in that they're not worried or scared of anyone else. That, plus being in a union seems to give people some courage also. 🙂