Leadership is a key piece both in the productivity of people and in the construction of a good working environment and talent retention, specialists agree. According to LinkedIn and Glint, workers who perceive their leaders to be disinterested in them are 42% more likely to apply for a new position at another company.
In that sense, the bad bosses They can generate from job exhaustion in collaborators, to higher levels of rotation. A negative leadership has an aggressive and imposing attitude, does not give clarity to its work team about functions and activities, recognizes its staff very little and does not seek feedback, describes Jorge Gutiérrez, senior consultant at the firm Kaysa.
“Leadership is a concept of what competencies imply, a large number of competencies that have to be demonstrated,” explains the specialist. Under this idea, negative leaders are those who do not have the skills to perform the function they have, they do not care about the health and well-being of their employeesand have no clarity of objectives.
From the perspective of Regina Athié, CEO of the Cuéntame platform, bad bosses they are the ones that do not provide workers with work tools, do not give collaborators clarity about the goals they must achieve, do not guarantee psychological security to their work team and do not seek adequate workloads.
“Leaders are the ones who establish how the company feels. culture in the organization. Many think that this depends on Human Resources, but the leaders are the ones who dictate how the team feels on a day-to-day basis and how the collaborators feel”, emphasizes the consultant.
When leaders reach a very high level of toxicity, a point where the workplace violence is present, bad bosses already have a close circle that is in charge of generating aggression towards the rest of the collaborators, says Aristides Ramírez, CEO of Ariva Consultores.
“Then comes all this passive part, which includes those who are witnessing the situation and do not say anything; indirectly foster this environment and that’s when violence becomes a phenomenon of the organizational environment”, he points out.
According to the specialists consulted, the bad leadership they can start with a disconnect with their co-workers and degrade to the point where bullying becomes standard practice.
Based on shared perspectives, this is the thermometer of bad bosses and the profiles that can be found in each one:
1. Yellow: The boss offline
Here we find “the least worst”. At the first level are the leaders who they are offline of their workers, they completely disregard their work team and what they do. “The least bad are the ones that let people loose and don’t get involved,” says Aristides Ramírez.
For Regina Athié, at this point there are the bosses who do not make clear the functions or the times of the people, the disconnection is of such magnitude that the leaders do not know if their collaborators have the necessary tools and to a large extent, this is due to that communication channels are null.
2. Orange: The abusive boss
If companies do not work on the development of positive leadership, bad bosses who are disconnected from their work teams can worsen and reach the second level, where leaders confront their own collaborators, prioritizing the personal interests.
At this point are the bosses who invent gossip, play favorites and arbitrarily distribute workloads, ignore people, want their team to constantly work more hours than they should and publicly highlight the mistakes of their collaborators.
3. Red: The harassing boss
Negative leaders at this level are bosses who sabotage and block people’s growth. “There may be from workplace harassment to seek that a work carried out by a collaborator never comes to light. And at this point, not only do they make fun of co-workers and expose their mistakes, they also make public the problems and delicate situations of others”, says Regina Athié.
From the point of view of Aristides Ramírez, this workplace harassment and intention to affect collaborators is linked to the perception that the person may represent a threat. “Many times the boss who lacks resources and tools, who he sees has the potential to grow and who at a given moment can compromise his leadership, is the one who begins to do mobbing“, Explain.
In addition to this, the competition culture fostered by leaders creates an environment in which workers are no longer perceived as colleagues, but as rivals.
How does poor leadership impact the organization?
Jorge Gutiérrez believes that leaders not only generate an impact in meeting objectives, but also influence the health of employees. If workers have physical and emotional well-being, the boss represents positive leadership. Good bosses, points out the specialist, are not only concerned with offering training programs wellnessThey also identify the root of psychosocial risks and seek to correct underlying problems.
For her part, Regina Athié believes that despite the fact that organizations have policies and measures that address the well-being of peoplethe leaders are the ones in charge of materializing them.
“It is very important that as a company you develop your leaders, provide them with the tools so that they can develop their work teams and it is very important that leaders provide clarity on the roles and functions of people, have communication channels to resolve doubts and that create a favorable environment for psychologically safe work”, he points out.
In this sense, Aristides Ramírez stresses that the working environment it is one of the factors that most influences productivity and leadership is the element that has the most impact on the work environment. “Leadership favors or harms the work environment, which is why there are many surveys that show that between 75 and 82% of people who resign do so for the leader, not for the job. Even if you have an excellent work environment, a bad leader makes you lose everything”.
