What Makes a Great Leader?

I had a very bad boss once. Many things were dysfunctional: Micromanaging, fires every day, no planning and no responsibility. The pay was good, the project was interesting, and I was working with some friends whom I respected a lot. So we made it work.

Then one day we detected an Issue. It was the sort of thing that could be big, if not managed properly. So I went and told him about it.

He basically exploded. He blamed us for everything, which was simply not fair. Then he threatened us. With prison.

So, we went and fixed the problem, the best we could, on our own.

A few months later a different problem happened. Everyone looked at me. I just shrugged. "Let's fix this ourselves".

Some months later I was recruited via Twitter and I was out of there.

That boss taught me a lot of things ... to avoid.

frequently I reflect back on a conversation with a supervisor of mine from over a decade ago when he explained "I won't ask you to do anything I wouldn't do myself." then had me show him how to run cat5 under the floor so he could help. I've tried to emulate that with my employees as well.

I was sharing theories with a friend just yesterday as to why bad managers exist, why they last so long in there position, and why they aren't summarily fired.

They may have a good relationship with senior leadership. The are ok with being the "bad guy", which weak leadership sometimes needs. Their team is too fearful to complain. Senior leadership may be more willing to "protect their own" and one one two employees complaining may not constitute enough of a reason to fire a fellow leader.

Also ironically sometimes bad managers can make for good teams. The team comes together in an US vs Them mentality, learn to be more self-sufficient, and work hard to avoid the wrath of their awful manager.

Tomasz Tunguz with an interesting question that will make you pause and think. It's a question that you need to answer often in a particular context: is it wartime or peacetime? What's the stage of the product? The company? How's the team structured, and which leader complements them the best? What do you think makes a great leader in each setup? What is unique about you? What will others say?