Hello and welcome to the thirteenth edition of Getting Teamwork Right!

This fortnight I want to talk about something most leadership writing tends to avoid: what do you do when the leader is the problem? Not every team is unlucky enough to work for someone genuinely destructive, but almost everyone will encounter a difficult leader at some point in their career.

What strikes me, whenever this comes up with a team I'm working with, is that the complaints are almost never about competence. They are about consistency, about credit, and about whether people feel genuinely heard. That's worth knowing, because it tells you where the damage is actually being done.

So there are two articles for you this time. The first looks at what really makes a leader difficult and, more usefully, what a team can do to protect its own climate while it lasts. The second is about managing upwards, which sounds like office politics but is really just the skill of making it easy for the person above you to make a good decision.

There's also a short video on dealing with poor leadership. And if you happen to be sitting in one of these situations right now, do get in touch. It's one of the more common conversations I have, and you're in far better company than you think.

What Makes a Bad Leader – and How Teams Can Survive One

Ask people what made a leader bad and they rarely mention competence. They talk about how it felt. This post looks at the five patterns that do the real damage, and the things a team can control even when it can't change who is in charge.

Dealing With Poor Leadership

A short, practical take on what to do when the person leading your team isn't leading it well – and why poor leadership is one of the most common reasons teams fail.

When the Leader Is the Problem: How to Manage Upwards Effectively

Managing upwards has an image problem. It isn't about being smooth – it's about making it easy for the person above you to make a good decision. Six practical moves, including the one shift that works with almost anybody.

Try This With Your Team This Week

If someone on your team is struggling with poor leadership above them, coach them on managing upwards. Help them turn the complaint they were going to make into a question instead. The content stays exactly the same – the response they get will not.

Ask Andy

Do you have a question that I can help you with? Send it to me on the link below and I will answer it. I'd like to publish one answer every fortnight – so that any readers with a similar concern can benefit. I will ask if you are OK for me to use your question, and I will make you and your situation anonymous before I share it.

Book a Call

If you want to find out more about how we could help your team or organisation, I'd love to hear from you. You can book a Microsoft Teams call with me here: