Leaders are only willing to be as effective as those who in turn lead them.

I found that employees who have worked for the same boss for several years tend to share not only the strengths but also the weaknesses of their boss. In a study, I examined the 360-degree feedback results for a manager and identified areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. The 360-degree results were then analysed for all of the direct reports of the manager (who were also managers). 

If your boss is an ineffective leader, the tendency is that you won’t be much better. The length of time people spend with the same boss can increase their similarities and behaviours.

In the study, I found that some leaders and their direct reports had a 100 percent overlap between strengths and weaknesses. By their nature, people think their approach to work is best, and bosses tend to hire employees who have a similar style. Over time, bosses reinforce their positive as well as negative traits by unconsciously rewarding some employee behaviours while discouraging or ignoring others. As a result, employees are conditioned to mimic those to whom they report.

For example, assume a leader who is very detail oriented, task focused, and technically proficient, but not sensitive toward co-workers reporting to him. More often than not, this person’s subordinates generally share his skills and are also not regarded as especially considerate of others. Most of the time, bosses do not actively encourage brusqueness, but the managers saw their boss get away with it and felt they could, too. The process of mimicking the strengths and weaknesses of one’s boss is an unconscious process. 

Possibly, one of the most startling pieces of research that validates these findings is the  study of child abuse. It is well established that children who are abused have a high likelihood of becoming abusive parents. It seems almost impossible to comprehend why children who detest and suffer from the way that their parents treat them often treat their children exactly the same way. Many adults have exerted great effort to successfully break their child-rearing practices from the past and start a new legacy of positive child-rearing. Many parents have had the experience as a child of promising themselves that they would “never treat their children that way,” only to find themselves doing exactly the same thing to their children.

A by-product of the phenomenon is that employees are rarely more effective than their bosses. That is good news if the boss is an extraordinary leader. The direct reports tend to rise to that level. But I observed over and over that employees are only as good as their bosses. Bosses set the standards, high or low. 

The findings have implications.

● The extent to which leaders merely encourage subordinates to be their clones becomes problematic. Indeed, it may demonstrate a lack of appreciation for different styles and approaches, which ultimately may be detrimental to the organisation’s goals.
● Leaders in the organisation should be made cognisant of the ways they reinforce their own behaviours in their direct reports. Superiors should think more consciously of the role they play in people’s lives and careers and the legacy they will leave once they are gone.
● Superiors need to be reminded to recruit employees with a diversity of skills and work styles that would enrich and contribute to the organisation.
● Organisations seeking a culture change should begin with an intervention at the senior level, as the best way to bring real change is usually to change the leaders.
● It takes great leaders to develop great leaders. The idea of “Do as I say, not as I do” just won’t work with leadership. Imagine the impact on any organisation if 20 percent of the good leaders could move on to become excellent. Fast forward in your mind to the organisational results that would produce. Consider the profound impact on culture and the motivation level of employees. Imagine the transformed work experience of all inside the organisation.

The research is clear regarding the impact of leadership on desirable outcomes. Good leaders are substantially more effective than bad leaders, but great leaders make a great difference.