We all know you. Our hearts beat fast and our palms sweat when we hear your chair creak and your door creak. Because we know the next thing we hear will be footsteps. What we don't know is where they'll end up - we just hope it's not at our office.
Who are you? A terrible boss. But you don't want to be someone everyone fears, disrespects, or mistrusts. So how do you change it? The first step is to be aware of the things that consider you not so great.
We asked the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to share their thoughts on what makes a terrible leader:
Related: 5 good lessons from bad bosses
1. Lack of transparency
Staff can tell when you are not being completely honest with them. There's rarely a reason not to be completely transparent with your team, especially in a young, growing company. Your team will appreciate understanding exactly where the business stands. This will help everyone come together as a team, focused on the issues that need to be resolved for the long-term benefit of the business. Lack of transparency can lead to lack of trust.
–Mitch Gordon , Go overseas
2. Not Listening
Listening to all employees as often as possible is so important to building a loyal and loyal team. Everyone should be part of the process and see the big picture. Interacting and listening to your team is something that is too often forgotten by CEOs, with the hustle and bustle of work and travel schedules. It shouldn't be.
–Jason Grill , JGrill Media | 101 sock
3. Rejecting ideas other than your own
I had no idea how toxic this behavior was until it was pointed out to me. Your employees should never feel like they're pitching you in a way that makes you (as the CEO) think you're spinning the gold. Understanding a good idea, helping to develop it, and providing solid praise and thanks where it's due is extremely important.
–Jeff McGregor , Dash
4. Valuing experience over potential
CEOs must be careful not to value experience over potential. Some of our best employees have not been the most experienced. What they have is something impossible to form or develop – it's a fire in the belly to deliver world-class products to our customers. You can't teach that.
–Chris Cancialosi , Gotham Culture
5. Ego
The best leaders are those who accept blame when things go wrong and give their team credit when things go right. To be a true visionary leader you must let go of your ego and focus on your people because without them you would be nowhere.
–Nick Friedman , College Hunks Hauling Junk
6. Working 24/7
I asked a fellow entrepreneur about his weekend plans a few weeks ago. His response:“I work all weekend. “I understand the ownership and passion that comes with running a business, but you have to set an example for your team, have other interests and learn to take a break. Otherwise, everyone will assume they have to work so hard and burnout of the whole team is inevitable (and a toxic culture will follow).
–Susan LaMotte , Exaqueo
7. Lack of empathy
Leaders need to understand the issues their team is facing and then start doing anything to remove barriers to entry so their team can do the best job they can. In my experience, these obstacles include a lack of resources, a lack of direction, and a lack of culture.
–Adam Root , Hiplogic
8. Forget about leadership development
Educating and creating a growth plan for your employees is one of the things that should never be ignored, but often slips through the cracks. Having a path of growth and education not only increases employee retention, but creates a smarter, hungrier team. If you think about it backwards, can you afford for your team not to learn or grow? Imagine if your marketing team was doing the same things as they are today four or five years from now.
–Sujan Patel, When I work
9. Being too conservative
Modern leaders have to be absolutely tenacious to get the results they want – from themselves, their organization, their team, even their clients. Get rid of overly conservative notions. You miss 100% of the pictures you don't take. If you don't take that risk, you'll never know what that opportunity would be. You never have to say "would have, could have, should". Use your guts, and in my experience and in the end, it all works out well.
–Scott Petinga , The Scott Petinga Group
10. Allowing Negative Gossip
Spreading any kind of negative gossip about others sends a signal that it's not safe to be with that person. Trust is immediately shattered and people fear that what they say will be shared behind their backs. Leaders who gossip or don't take action to eradicate it hurt more than company morale. They impede the flow of honest feedback and communication throughout the organization.
–David Hassell , 15Five
11. Poor communication of strategy
CEOs tend to plot ideas in our heads, but don't share the process. Then, when the team starts making suggestions that you've already eliminated through thoughtful internal deliberation, they get angry. But no one knows you've done it before. Both parties are frustrated. My co-founder told me this all the time, so I started writing down ideas and plans to make sure my process and conclusion was easy to understand.
–Benish Shah , Before label
12. Close-minded
As a CEO, it is essential to be open-minded and to listen to the comments and ideas of others. Being closed-minded and unwilling to change your perspective will cause problems both with your employees and with the success of your business.
–Josh Weiss , Bluegala
13. Assign blame
Take responsibility for any failure your team has. At the end of the day, you ultimately hold all the blame anyway, so let your team know that you understand things didn't work out the way they should have. Then offer solutions instead of blaming.
–Lane Campbell , Syntress SCDT
14. Inconsistency
I have often been criticized for sounding like a broken record, but it is a record that my staff, customers and suppliers know and can count on. Too often I see CEOs who are inconsistent and change their minds, creating confusion and mixed signals among everyone around them. Sticking to your guns and accepting fate (even if it's bad!) will give you the ability to keep learning while building the confidence of others.
–Kim Kaupe , ZinePak
15. Being too slow to adapt
Successful startups grow fast. CEOs who fail to hold on are likely to be clueless, narrow-minded, and arrogant. A lack of knowledge leads to indecisiveness and fear and can cause employees to quickly lose trust in their leader.
–Neil Thanedar , LabDoor
Related: 10 quick tips to be a better boss
Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invitational organization that brings together the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective , a free virtual mentoring program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
Editor's Note:This article was originally published in January 2015 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and completeness.
