The Leader's Shadows: Casting Light Instead of Shadows

“Leadership” for most people, has a positive meaning, yet there are negative aspects to leaders, as well. Recognizing the reality of bad and destructive leadership is essential in promoting good and ethical leadership. Metaphorically, leaders are separated into “light” and “shadow. ” There is a dramatic difference between the light and shadows of leadership. When leaders cast “light, ” they master ethical challenges of leadership. However, when they cast “shadows, ” they abuse power, hoard privileges, mismanage information, act inconsistently, misplace or betray loyalties, and fail to assume responsibilities.

There are many forms of bad leadership. Johnson (2018) cites Harvard professor Barbara Kellerman when identifying seven types of bad leaders. First, there are incompetent leaders who lack emotional or academic intelligence, are distracted and sloppy, and cannot function under stress. Second, there are rigid leaders, who may be competent but are unable to accept new ideas and adapt to changing conditions. Third, there are intemperate leaders that “lack self-control and are enabled by followers who don’t want to intervene or can’t. ” Fourth, there are callous leaders who are uncaring, unkind, ignore or downplay needs, wants and wishes of their followers. Fifth, there are corrupt leaders that lie, cheat and steal out of self-interest and do not act in the public interest. Sixth, there are insular leaders that draw clear boundaries between the wellbeing of their immediate organization over the interest of outsiders. And, finally, there are evil leaders that use their influence to inflict physical and psychological harm on people. All these types of leaders can extend harm beyond the lives of their followers.

Johnson (2018) identifies six “shadows” of leaders, including power, privilege, mismanaged information, inconsistency, misplaced and broken loyalties, and irresponsibility. The Leader’s Shadows are explained as follows:

1. The Shadow of Power: The greater the leader’s power, the greater the potential for abuse of that power. Understanding the power behind leadership is important to understanding how power can be used for casting light or shadows. One typology divides power into two categories: hard and soft. Hard power uses inducements, such as bonuses and raises, as well as threats, such as arrests and firings, to get people to go along. Soft power is based on attracting others rather than forcing them to comply and is usually used by those without formal authority. Effective leaders combine both hard and soft power into smart power to achieve goals. Abuse of power can be in way of the following behaviors: deceit, constraint, coercion, selfishness, inequity, cruelty, disregard, and deification.
2. The Shadow of Privilege: Privilege is an ethical burden related to leadership. Leaders usually have more privileges than followers do by way of salary, influence, status, or rewards. Johnson (2018) states “leaders must give questions of privilege the same careful considerations as questions of power. ” The shadows by the abuse of privilege can be just as dark as those cast by the abuse of power.
3. The Shadow of Mismanaged Information: Leaders are more likely to have access to information than followers for a variety of reasons. Leaders cast shadows when they lie about information they possess, “hide the truth, fail to reveal conflicts of interest, withhold information followers need, use information solely for personal benefit, violate the rights of followers, release information to the wrong people, and put followers in ethical binges by preventing them from releasing information that others have a legitimate right to know”. How leaders manage information they possess can delineate the difference between casting shadow or light.
4. The Shadow of Inconsistency: Issues of inconsistencies can arise with those outside the leader’s immediate group or organization paralleling the experience of those within the immediate group. This is because a leader develops closer relationships with those within his or her inner group other than those outside the group. The relationship might define whether light of shadow is cast in this regard.
5. The Shadow of Misplaced and Broken Loyalties: Leaders consider loyalties and obligations when making choices by considering wide-ranging loyalties and obligations all the way from stockholders and employees to society and the environment. Casting shadows would be when a leader makes choices that benefit his or her self-interest rather than those to whom he or she should be loyal. Followers could see this as betrayal and worthy of condemnation.
6. The Shadow of Irresponsibility: Unlike followers, leaders are held accountable for the performance of groups of people. “Leaders act irresponsibly when they fail to make reasonable efforts to prevent misdeeds on the part of their followers, ignore or deny ethical problems, don’t shoulder responsibility for the consequences of their directives, or deny their duties to followers”.

Leaders come with the weaknesses of being human. The human factors that can affect ethical behavior include such things as insecurity and fear. Internal enemies or “monsters” can affect ethical leadership. These include insecurity, battleground mentality, functional atheism, fear, denying death, and evil. Self-centeredness/narcissism can drive destructive leadership, as well. Personality disorders such as narcissism can have positive or negative consequences for leaders depending on the levels of this trait. Moderate narcissism can be good in the short term. However, extreme narcissistic leaders can put others at risk when their goals are unrealistic and can’t be implemented. Faulty decision-making can be caused by well-intentioned leaders that made poor choices that were not based on greed or callousness but from widespread weaknesses in how people make decisions and how they think the world operates, about other people, and about themselves. Johnson (2018) states that “failure of moral imagination consists of three related components:

1. sensitivity to ethical dimensions of the situation
2. perspective taking (considering other people’s points of view)
3. creation of novel solutions

Meanwhile, moral disengagement is when individuals have a clear sense of right and wrong yet engage in immoral activities. This can be justified by leaders via moral justification, euphemistic labeling, displacement of responsibility, distortion of consequences, dehumanizing others, and attributing blame. Finally, lack of ethical expertise and contextual pressures can also be blamed for casting shadows on leaders. Lack of ethical expertise can be blamed for leaders unintentionally making bad choices, while contextual pressures can be blamed for groups making decisions by not interacting with others and insulating themselves from disagreement.

With leadership comes great moral responsibility. To master and overcome the factors that cast shadows on leaders, leaders need to look inward and pay careful attention to their motivations. This can be accomplished by improving our ethical decision-making by expanding ethical knowledge, resisting negative contextual influences, and fostering ethical climates. To increase ethical competence, Johnson (2018) suggests three elements: assessment, challenge, and support. Leaders can assess themselves by self-reflection and accepting feedback from followers. Meanwhile, leaders can embraces challenges by acknowledging that each challenge brings with it lessons which can result in loss, failure, and disappointment. However, these lessons can reveal blind spots where leaders can persevere and remain resilient. Finally, leaders can accept support by way of productive comments and feedback from other people such as family, friends, coworkers, and managers. Ethical management can take a lifetime to master.