Each one of us has a leadership role to play, be it leadership of ourselves, at work, at home or in our communities. But leadership, as we all know, isn’t always great. Jeffrey Benjamin looks at some of the traits of good leadership and cautions against traits that characterise bad leadership.

Bad leaders use deception
What they do is often the exact opposite of what they say they will do. Good leaders keep to what they promise.

Bad leaders rely on their title
Brian Tracy wrote, “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” A leader that relies on title and not on performance is not a true leader.

Bad leaders blame people and circumstances
True leaders take responsibility while bad leaders continually blame. Pointing the finger at others is a sure sign of a false leader. That is why Henry Ford, a leader in revolutionising the automobile history said, “Don’t find a fault, find a remedy.”

Bad leaders attempt to control
Bad leaders think that people need to be controlled; that you need to force them to do something. Dwight D. Eisenhower believed, “Leadership is the art of getting someone to do something you want done because he wants to do it. If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Bad leaders disparage others
Bad leaders like to boast about how great they are, and how everyone else is below average. The only time a true leader should look down on anyone is to lend a hand to help another person up.

Bad leaders take the credit
Bad leaders gobble up all the credit. A true leader acknowledges friends, peers and followers when they do a great job.

Bad leaders renege obligations
Bad leaders break promises. True leaders do whatever it takes to make commitments happen.

Bad leaders make excuses
True leaders never offer excuses because they realize there is no use for an excuse. Benjamin Franklin eloquently echoed, “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

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