THE SHITTY LEADERSHIP SERIES - FREE SHIT TO READ
Shitty Leadership Profiles: Diagnosis
Warning: by reading these you may be triggered in finding a) the behaviours demonstrated by your current boss, b) past bosses, c) past employees, d) current employees, or e) yourself! We'll save your exes, horrible children, or the rude Karen (no gender implied) at the coffee shop, etc., for future articles!
Below are the top five shitty leadership profile types that are most relevant today.
Confident. Loud. Wrong.
This is the leader who’s absolutely sure of everything—except how to lead. Thinks experience is overrated and Google is for quitters.
Behaviour: Acts overly confident, dismisses feedback, and delivers bold decisions with zero research.
Actuality: Doesn’t know what he doesn’t know — but insists he’s the smartest in the room anyway. Mistakes ego for expertise.
Glory hog by day, blame-dodger by night.
Miraculously shows up for credit and vanishes during accountability. Their favourite project? “Me.”
Behaviour: Takes credit for wins, disappears during failures, and lights up like a Christmas tree in front of upper management.
Actuality: Obsessed with self-image. Cannot function unless they’re the centre of every success story. Blame? That’s for staff.
Strategy is for the weak. Ideas are shouted. Planning is skipped.
Thinks clarity is overrated and structure is the enemy. Speaks in big-picture riddles, forgets to loop you in, then blames you when the plan (that didn’t exist) fails.
Behaviour: Talks endlessly about ideas, rejects planning as weakness, changes direction mid-sentence, and bypasses the org chart like it’s optional.
Actuality: Avoids structure like it’s contagious. Believes speed is a leadership strategy. Unclear about expectations but very clear about disappointment. Doesn’t realize they’re the source of the storm they’re complaining about.
"No one helps me, so I do it all... poorly."
Won’t let go of anything, complains about everything, and believes being overwhelmed is a leadership skill. Delegation? That’s a sign of weakness.
Behaviour: Hoards tasks, refuses to delegate, then complains about being exhausted. Doesn’t trust anyone — including their calendar.
Actuality: Equates control with competence. Doesn’t know how to lead without doing everything themselves, then plays victim when they burn out.
All the vibes, none of the decisions.
Masters the art of saying nothing in 400 words. Can’t lead, won’t commit, but somehow still has a title and a calendar full of “touch base” meetings.
Nods in meetings, says things like “let’s park that,” and avoids committing to anything.
Conflict-avoidant and afraid of being wrong. Hides indecision behind buzzwords and non-answers. Master of the illusion of leadership.
If you’ve just read this and thought, “Holy hell, that’s my boss,” congratulations—you’re not alone. If you thought, “Oh crap, that’s me,” welcome to self-awareness, population: you. These five leadership profiles aren’t rare exotic birds—they’re practically the house pets of corporate life. And while we’d love to believe they live only in bad sitcoms and worse exit interviews, they’re real, employed, and probably attending a “leadership offsite” as we speak.
Here’s the deal: shitty leadership isn’t always malicious—it’s often just unexamined, over-promoted, or stuck in a feedback-free fantasyland. But the damage? Still real. Still costly. Still making your Tuesday meetings a soul-draining affair.
So what now? Spot it. Call it. Unshittify it. Or at the very least, send this to someone who really needs to read it (anonymously, of course—we’re not total monsters).
Because knowing is half the battle. The other half? Not being that leader.