Strategies For Thriving Under Challenging Leadership

Leadership is all pervasive, and everyone knows it for a fact, be it sports, management, teaching or whatever. It is almost imperative to submit to the leader's command for the greater good and smoother functioning if it’s a team activity.

Most importantly, it is necessary to understand that this conversation of identifying and differentiating or making out the difference between a bad and a good leader can go on forever because each prefers his own way of being led.

One bunch may think of the strictness as driving for the work to be done without lethargy, and they may look for some external push with incentives not so suitable to others. While the other bunch may be more sensitive to criticism and absolutism.

So, bad leadership is a subjective concept for some in a varied context, except for toxic leadership and leaders. This deserves fixing; if not, escape. A brief breakdown of what does and does not affect the members is needed.

Here, the identification of bad leadership traits also ought to be discussed. Keeping this in mind, the main standpoint would be about different ways of handling difficult leaders.

Incentivizing Leaders

Incentives can be of two types; negative incentives and positive incentives. In the usual sense, rugged people wouldn’t mind being threatened to increase productivity in their work. If negatively manipulating workers doesn’t work, it often means that they are fed up and are about to retaliate.

Positive incentives should be obeyed, whereas in the case of negative incentives, the degree of negativity must be monitored because some negative incentives are important, like salary-cuts, pay raises, the threat of being fired, etc.

If these get even slightly personal or related to your life, it’s time you let them know that you won't tolerate such a method of getting things done.

Being equally vindictive and hostile in nature will only build up more tension among each other. But it is also important to not lose your position.

Over Assertive Leaders

It is a no-brainer that leaders must have an assertive and strong character trait. That's how it gets things done, and management doesn't become an unsure or uncertain process.

In certain situations, when the work goes over the top, the superior sometimes gets too critical of everyone’s doings. When an equally alpha-type person works under such leaders, things can go out of hand.

This is where you must stand firm, look him in the eye, and tell him to stay in his lane and that crossing it would lead to consequences. When both are at fault, it is necessary to come to common ground and settle the dispute without much furtherance in the conflict.

Over-Working Leaders

At some point or another, the workload in an organization will, without a doubt, increase, and no one can stop that. The team must be set up in such a way that one doesn’t feel like the burden is only adding up on his shoulders. The distribution of the load has to be equitable.

More often than not, it doesn’t work that way, and that’s when one has to step up to defend the injustice in the work distribution. If delegation works, then one can opt out of any confrontation with the superior.

But the misuse of that privilege shouldn’t be accommodated by any employee. A good employee is often targeted in these cases, and it is imperative that he steps up to defend himself and start questioning the authorities for their unfair decisions against him.

Vindictive Leaders

Even a small incident can turn these nonsensical so called leaders rageful and full of emotions. In reality, these guys are not fit to be leaders or have a leadership position, but that’s the part of the company, the institution, or the higher authorities to deal with.

When encountered with such a leader, maybe try using his own method against him, make him understand the outcomes of his actions, and keep him under your navigation.

Clueless Leaders

It is sometimes possible that you might know more or have a better understanding of the subject, have better subject knowledge, or be more qualified than your leader. In these instances, you will start feeling like your superior is not able to keep up with you and your work.

This negatively affects the pace of the job in its entirety or totality, leading to destabilization. Clueless criticisms due to a lack of understanding of the work can also be a driving force for rising tensions among employees, and so they must be addressed at the earliest.

The only thing one can do in this situation is request that the higher authorities educate the said superior on the said subject. Maybe a change of roles wouldn’t be a bad decision. This is a situation of surviving under inadequate leadership.

Sensitive Leaders

Usually, the concern is about sensitive employees and managing them without too much provocation. Sensitive leaders are also apparently a thing and cause a lot of deviations in the work.

Under the same circumstances as previously mentioned, underqualified leaders tend to receive a lot of criticism from their own subordinates, which can raise self-doubt in them. The problem here is that the ones working under them will go into confusion.

A good way to tackle this problem would be to maybe work the way the leader wants you to, given that he or she is qualified enough but just a bit critical of oneself.

A change in the functioning can also prove beneficial in the long run, if not, at least for the team, because managing under poor leadership is almost next to impossible.

Written By L.A.Adithya

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