How bad bosses hurt employee morale

First a simple truth. Success and leadership are not the same thing.
For some reason we assume that an organization that is successful achieves that success due to the leader's efforts. We forget that often timing can be everything, like being in the right industry at the right time; so success happens despite poor leadership.
We witness terrible leadership every single day as follows:
. Leading by fire-outing - using excessive workloads to set people up to fail
. Drugging the workplace with short term success versus focusing on long term stability
. Taking control of all workplace routines such as calling too many meetings, demanding unnecessary reports, interfering with people's work and regular undermining of employees
. Inconsistency and avoidance. The video often conflicts with the audio and people/situations are often treated as if they are invisible
. Construction of an insular bubble where one must always be right and anyone who suggests otherwise or threatens control is mercilessly struck down.
This list represents the traits of terrible leaders yet so many of these leaders get to be successful (in the world's eyes). Why?
Ever heard of social validation phenomenon where it is much harder to question leadership that everyone accepts as the norm without being excluded for speaking up. The desire to belong is stronger that the desire to do what is right which requires moral strength. Standing around passively ensuring one is not singled out as the next victim is the modus operandi of social validation.
Then there is that desire to divert attention away from personal mediocrity. Mediocrity breeds more mediocrity and poor leadership hires for blind loyalty to soothe their egos.
In fact, bad leaders continuously promote other bad leaders. Bad leaders only promote to the highest level of incompetence. Mediocre organizations tend to promote people at their current level of skill instead of looking for the skill the organization requires to get to a new level. Bad leaders strive to keep things the same and get the job done with a minimum of interference. Visionary leadership questions the way things are done and will stop work to get to the root problem and will stick their head out and be provocative. These latter type of leaders rarely survive in organizations with terrible leaders at the top.
And of course let us not forget the majority of bad leaders acting out relationship dysfunctions - many unconsciously agree to live in inequitable relationships. Many companies still achieve financial success in spite of the above, but the organization is often weathered with a general lack of trust, no acknowledgement of good work or strong positive leadership emerging naturally; lack of transparency, little or no encouragement for employees to think, question or suggest. Here are a few simple questions you can ask and answer yourself to find out if you are being led by terrible leaders:
1. Can you call your parents? People following a good leader should be able to call their parents and say, "I'm so happy. You won't believe what I did/ learned/ met today.
2. Can you call each customer? Good leaders serve and honor their customers. If your leaders encourage you to be dis-honest and not transparent with customers, you are being led by terrible leaders.
3. Do your leaders help you pass them?
A good leader helps the people around them succeed past them. Great leadership asks the question, "How far can the people around me get?" Terrible leaders do exactly the opposite and do not grow leaders around them.
Questions are powerful since the answers will rise or fall to meet the questions asked. So now you have a choice to become a terrible leader yourself or do better remembering "charisma and talent will only take leaders places that their character will not be able to sustain them". Profound words indeed.
- Sallyann Della Casa is founder of Growing Leaders Foundation which works with companies in the UAE