About a month ago, my kids were arguing about something and I heard my oldest son say, “That’s unleadershipping and he should go to jail.”
The interesting new term caught my attention, so I asked him what unleadershipping meant. He said that if someone was not leading or leading others the wrong way, that would be unleadershipping.
Too often we overfocus on leadership and ignore the consequences of bad leadership. But, in my estimation, we have a lot of unleadershipping going on all around us. Â I am not just talking about scandals, but unthoughtful, cowardly, and inept leadership. Whether it comes in the form of taking credit or hiding behind employees for cover, it is a serious issue.
Unleadershipping takes its toll on followers. It should be unmasked and despised for the problem it is. Now that we have a word for it, I hope we can get some traction.
-Darin Gerdes
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Dr. Darin Gerdes is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in the School of Business at Charleston Southern University. All ideas expressed on www.daringerdes.com are his own.
