{"id":9212,"date":"2017-05-10T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=9212"},"modified":"2017-05-06T10:26:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T14:26:00","slug":"dont-follow-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Follow This Leader!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"leadership-913043_1920\"Think about every job you’ve had. Now think about the leader. The leader has everything to do with your memories of the job being a good one or a challenging one. So what is it about leaders that can make an organization a difficult or great place to work? Here are five characteristics of leaders that are warning signs and should caution you not to follow the leader!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The leader’s ego drives the organization.<\/strong> This is the leader who thinks he is above everyone else in abilities and talent. The organization is fortunate to have him or her because they are right on everything. Under the facade of confidence is a lack of self-esteem despite all the bravado. The problem is that decisions are made in order to make them feel important or empowered, rather than in the best interest of the organization.<\/li>\n
  2. They have poor emotional intelligence (EQ) and do not see this as a need.<\/strong> Good leaders examine their actions and interactions and are constant learners. Self-growth is important. But leaders who lack emotional intelligence don’t value self-growth and believe they are fine the way they are. They don’t seek feedback from their leadership team. They focus on the bottom line rather than people. Leaders with poor EQ are often top down leaders who are transactional, not transforming in their style.<\/li>\n
  3. They hire YES people.<\/strong> I have seen this over and over. Because of insecurity and an elevated ego, the leader has to be around people who continue to admire and reinforce their greatness as a leader. As a result, they surround themselves with people who do not disagree or challenge their ideas. This is as dangerous in leadership as it is in government. There are no checks and balances, no new ideas, and no critical evaluation of how the organization is progressing. This characteristic keeps an organization stagnant.<\/li>\n
  4. The leader is terrible at dealing with conflict<\/strong>. An example comes to \u00a0mind of a leader who was called to a meeting and did not address a conflict because he was afraid of the repercussions of standing up to an injustice. Instead, he threw his employee under the bus. The leader was driven by fear and was conflict avoidant. Upon further examination, the leader had grown up in an alcoholic home in which conflict was not safe. It could end in violence or abuse. This learned style of conflict avoidance followed him into an executive position. Conflict avoidance or reactivity to conflict is detrimental to an organization and thus often results in fear and distrust in the organization. When people can’t trust that leaders will come to them and talk through a conflict, mistrust is established.<\/li>\n
  5. Bad leaders don’t learn from their mistakes; they blame others.<\/strong> No one is perfect, yet failure or mistakes can be a fertile ground for learning if the attitude is one of humility. But so many leaders will make a mistake and not ask for help. They don’t want your input or discussion about what could be improved and how to move forward in a different way. Good leaders look at failure and mistakes and lear from them. Often what I see is when a mistake happens, the leader reigns in the control and begins to micromanage. And micromanaging is a morale killer.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Think about every job you’ve had. Now think about the leader. The leader has everything to do with your memories of the job being a good one or a challenging one. So what is it about leaders that can make an organization a difficult or great place to work? Here are five characteristics of leaders…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1057],"tags":[3783,3331,3785,3786,3787,1060],"class_list":["post-9212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-work-relationships","tag-bad-leaders","tag-leadership","tag-leadership-leaders","tag-toxic-leaders","tag-weak-leaders","tag-work-relationships-2"],"yoast_head":"\nDon't Follow This Leader!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don't Follow This Leader!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Think about every job you’ve had. Now think about the leader. The leader has everything to do with your memories of the job being a good one or a challenging one. So what is it about leaders that can make an organization a difficult or great place to work? Here are five characteristics of leaders…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-10T10:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-06T14:26:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/05\/leadership-913043_1920-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don't Follow This Leader!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don't Follow This Leader!","og_description":"Think about every job you’ve had. Now think about the leader. The leader has everything to do with your memories of the job being a good one or a challenging one. So what is it about leaders that can make an organization a difficult or great place to work? Here are five characteristics of leaders…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html","og_site_name":"Doing Life Together","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","article_published_time":"2017-05-10T10:00:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-06T14:26:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/05\/leadership-913043_1920-300x199.jpg"}],"author":"Linda Mintle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drlindamintle","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html","name":"Don't Follow This Leader!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/05\/leadership-913043_1920-300x199.jpg","datePublished":"2017-05-10T10:00:36+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-06T14:26:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/05\/leadership-913043_1920-300x199.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/05\/leadership-913043_1920-300x199.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/05\/dont-follow-leader.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Don’t Follow This Leader!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/","name":"Doing Life Together","description":"Relationship Doctor, Mental Health, Emotional Wellness, Relationship Advice & Entertainment","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142","name":"Linda Mintle","description":"It is rare that a trained academic who speaks passionately to the heart of people providing real answers to real life problems is so relatable. Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9220,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212\/revisions\/9220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}