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1. What You Can Learn From a Terrible Leader
It is from our mistakes that we learn the most, writes author
Dan White. So what can the worst leadership mistakes of all
time teach us? More than you might think. Here are 3 things
you can learn from a terrible leader.
Terrible leaders are all around us. They are the business ‘leaders’ who have been
ruining corporations and betraying the trust of shareholders, from Enron to Lehman
Brothers, bringing western capitalism to its knees. They are the political ‘leaders’ who
were oppressing populations in the Middle East and North Africa for decades, as well as
British politicians who weren’t able to tell the difference between a salary and an
expense claim. And, perhaps most frightening of all, they are the mass of people who go
to the office, check their personality, common sense and basic humanity at the door, and
then get to work…
Of course, life is complicated, situations are sometimes confusing, pressured and
ambiguous, and nobody’s perfect. But really, when did it become alright for a CEO to
leave their job prematurely and in disgrace for doing a terrible job – yet with more money
than most people earn in a lifetime? I may be a little old-fashioned in this, but I think our
leaders should be the best of us. Or, at least, a little bit like us. Or, at the very least not
ripping us off and making our lives worse.
Often it is from our mistakes that we learn the most – so why not look at the worst
leadership mistakes of all time and learn from those? Here are three lessons we can
learn from some terrible leaders of today:
Lesson 1: It’s About The Organization – Not You
Many leaders fall into a cyclical trap where they perceive their goal to be the
enhancement of their career, their success, or their personal power. This is not what
great leadership is about.
For instance, Colman Mockler was the CEO of Gillette when the company invented its
blockbuster product – the only razor blade anyone would ever want to use again. He
lived in an ordinary house near the head office in Boston where employees would
regularly see him sitting out on his porch and say hi. He believed what Gillette did was
special and he fought long and hard to prevent the company being acquired in a proxy
battle with the Coniston Group so that expensive, but ground breaking research could be
continued on Gillette’s Sensor range. He never got caught up in the hype and he saw the
leader’s role for what it truly is.
Contrast this with the behavior of Joe Gregory, the one-time number 2 at Lehman
Brothers. He would come to the office from his out-of-town estate by helicopter and
return by sea-plane! Or consider former BP Chief executive Tony Hayward off yachting
while the Gulf of Mexico burned; he even complained he wanted his life back.
Gregory and Hayward both lost their focus somewhere along the line, where Mockler
kept his. Leadership is not about your personal glory and fame, it is about the service
you provide to the organization you lead. Before you read this I bet you’d never heard of

2. Colman Mockler, but consider the relative staying power of Lehman Brothers versus the
Gillette razor...
Lesson 2: Put Pride Where It Belongs – What You Do, Not Are
We should take pride in what we and our organizations do for the people we serve, our
customers and our people. Too many leaders attach too much pride in the wrong place,
i.e. relative market share vs. competitors, becoming “number 1”, being the biggest or
being the most dominant. This becomes a reflection of their own dominant personalities
and is a risky way to do business.
Dick Fuld, also of ex-Lehman fame is a case in point. A ferocious, combative character
he was determined to make Lehmans a global success at any cost, despite his
reputation for risk management. He said that Lehman was “built to triumph in adversity”
and believed that it was “us against the world”. This pride led to Lehman’s great fall. But
pride can be good, when it is in a job well done. Instead of aiming to be biggest had
Lehman’s sought to be the “investors choice” I wonder if they might still be around.
The critical point here is to place the pride in the thing you do, not the thing you are.
Becoming number one won’t happen unless you are doing everything your customers
need better than anyone else. Leaders who focus on and become obsessed by the
former run the risk of forgetting the latter. Let Dick Fuld be a warning to you all...
Lesson 3: Staff Perform, Not Because You're A Hero (Or A Villain)
Too many leaders arrive at work each day with the misplaced belief that their people will
perform to a high standard for one of two reasons:
1. You inspire them personally to great heights and they want to do their best for you
(hero leadership)
2. You are an intimidating prospect to deal with should anything go wrong, so
everyone will try double hard to prevent that from happening in order to keep you
happy (villain leadership)
Lord Alan Sugar, Britain’s answer to America’s Donald Trump, is a great example of the
more intimidating style of leader. This is probably mostly for the cameras - Lord Sugar is
the British star of The Apprentice – and I’m not in a position to comment on his manner
in his real world business dealings. But when wannabe leaders on The Apprentice err in
their judgment you can be certain they will receive a none-too-delicate dose of vitriol.
One wonders if their performance is more about avoiding Sugar’s wrath or about
genuinely coming up with innovative solutions to the task that is set... But it doesn’t really
matter whether you set out to be villainous or heroic in your leadership style. Neither of
these approaches is sustainable, because sustainable performance - the high
performance that just keeps on going and keeps on trying to solve the biggest problems
that we face today - that’s not because of you. It comes from the intrinsic motivation of
your people themselves – and you can’t force that upon anyone.
Terrible leaders of today and yesterday often point most clearly to what not to do. When
we do the opposite of Terrible we might achieve greatness. But critically, when we
perceive that there are options, there are choices about what we can and should do, that
is when we open the door to truly great leadership...

3. Based on “The Terrible Leader” by Dan White, released this month by Marshall
Cavendish. To hear more of these ideas, you can listen to the podcast with Dan:
Leadership Lessons from Genghis Khan.
About PEX Network
Dan White is a leadership and management development expert and
author of a new book "The Terrible Leader". He has designed and run
courses and programs attended by thousands of leaders from across
Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, Japan, India, China and
more. He was a Learning & Organization Development Director at GSK
before setting up his own consulting practice and writing books. He has
himself been a leader in a large leadership development consultancy. He has worked in
a broad range of industries including pharmaceuticals, finance, IT, publishing,
broadcasting, law, oil and gas, engineering, charitable, and public sector. He lives in
London with his wife and daughter.
Credit Dan White Photo: Elle Fallon Photography.
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