Last time out, I offered some tips on how any leader could actively sabotage their team—not for the purpose of helping them actually do it, but hopefully as a cautionary tale. Today, I asked myself, “Why should leaders have all the fun?” while simultaneously asking, “Why should everyone but leaders be exempt from responsibility for a team’s success?” so I’m offering a complementary set of tips for how a rank-and-file team member can sabotage any leader.
As I discussed previously, teams require trust, well-defined roles and responsibilities, and a shared goal to operate smoothly. Team members thrive when leaders set these three elements, and struggle when they do not. Leaders also have needs; they draw on the strengths and contributions of their entire team. I think I can categorize most leadership needs into three broad areas: trust, communication, and sharing.
Trust should be obvious; leaders need to trust in their teams (more on that below). Communication, likewise, should come as no surprise. Sharing may not be as intuitive, and takes some explaining: team members both share their leader’s vision and goal, and they share their own talents and insights to help meet that goal. Like trust, sharing goes both ways.
On to the sabotage. By definition, multi-directional trust goes both ways. In my last column I found five ways that leaders could undermine trust, and I can now share four ways team members can make their leader seriously doubt them. Two of them overlap with my “advice” to leaders, while two of them are new.
- Be inconsistent. Just as an inconsistent leader can baffle and frustrate their team, so too an inconsistent team member confound their leader. As with leaders, inconsistency in this context translates into responding differently to the same stimulus. Being assigned a task one day, fall all over yourself with gratitude; assigned the same task a week later, respond with sullen indifference. Force your boss into living Dalton’s first rule, expecting the unexpected, and hope that they are able to still “be nice” (or not).
- Break confidences. Just because someone is a leader, it does not mean they don’t occasionally need someone to confide in or be vulnerable around. Becoming the confidante of a leader may produce a mix of emotions: gratitude that one is trusted enough to be taken in confidence; worry that the leader may regret their openness and take it out on them; concern that even one’s boss has serious issues to face; happiness at connecting with someone else. I don’t know what the best way to respond when a leader trusts you with their inner thoughts, but I definitely know the worst way: betraying that trust with a big mouth.
- Be unreliable. When asked recently what they appreciated about an employee, someone told me it was her reliability—she was always there when she was supposed to be and turned her projects in on time and up to standards. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that doing the opposite—showing up late, or not at all, producing poor-quality work—can quickly undermine trust.
- Know it all. Confidence, as someone once told me, is halfway to competence. A little bit of it is good. It gets us in the door and reassures those around us that we might actually know what we are doing. But overconfidence to the point of believing that one knows everything there is to know is an almost guaranteed path to incompetence. It’s my personal belief that we all have something to teach each other, whether by imparting knowledge, setting a positive example, or showing us what not to do. The hubris of shutting oneself off from learning can truly be blinding. Letting your leader know that neither they nor anyone else have anything to teach you will make them doubt your efforts. It is hard to trust someone who thinks they have nothing to learn from others.
That covers it for how to undermine trust. What about communication? The key is to use bad communication or none at all. Poor communication shows up at many levels. It can start with not saying hello. While some might dismiss friendly greetings as useless pleasantries, most would say they are indicative of common courtesy. One could also not respond to emails—that’s a popular way to sandbag a conversation and frustrate others. Or they could try being as vague as possible when making requests of others. Introduce lots of noise in the form of extraneous information into the simplest exchange. Show irritation when others approach. These are a few easy ways to sabotage a leader by disrupting communication. If you can do it persistently enough, it might spread to others, shattering any hope of cohesion.
Since we upended communication so quickly, we can spend some more time with sharing. Remember, sharing here has two facets: buying into your leader’s vision, and sharing your own gifts honestly. Subverting those isn’t that difficult.
For vision, refuse to see things the way your boss does. Cling to your cynical view of how things “really work,” and resist to the upmost seeing things how they might be. Just put in your hours and plug away, without a care for the biggest context.
While you are at it, don’t share any ideas about making things better, and don’t let anyone know if you have abilities that the organization can benefit from. Keep it all to yourself. That will help sabotage your leader by denying them a potentially valuable resource.
Doing your best to subvert trust, clog communication, and shut down sharing might not just make you a pariah; it might frustrate your boss so much that they quit in shame. At the very least it will make their life that much harder, and make coming to work a chore rather than a joy. It goes without saying that this will make the job much less pleasant for everyone involved, but at least you can rest secure knowing that you have done everything you can to completely undermine your leader.
Of course, in a world where we want to improve the lives of others and help them succeed, one can prosper by doing the exact opposite of everything we discussed above. Build trust, communicate openly, and be generous with what you take in and give back. With that approach, you may find yourself working with someone whose leadership you treasure.
So until next time, expect the unexpected, stay informed, and I’ll stay informal.
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