Has the Elon Musk Twitter debacle got you thinking about how to manage a less-than-ideal boss at your workplace? Here’s how to identify a leader who might be damaging employee productivity and morale, paired with strategies on how to influence them to make better decisions.  

Not all bad leaders are made equally. It’s more likely to be a spectrum; on one end you might be dealing with a leader who shows traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism or even psychopathology (also known as a dark triad leader). On the more benevolent end, you might encounter a leader who is simply insecure or inexperienced and is trying to assert their power by making extreme decisions. 

Wherever they sit on the leadership spectrum, you can be sure of one thing: demanding, inconsiderate or combative leaders will harm employee morale and productivity.  

Elon Musk’s leadership style 

There are plenty of opinions floating around about Elon Musk’s leadership style.  

Many of his actions have to do with his worldview, says Jennifer Overbeck, Associate Professor of Management at Melbourne Business School. 

“Some leaders have a dominating worldview that leaves no room to assess the situation and determine where their worldview fits in. Instead, they simply impose their worldview on others,” she says.  

For example, Musk has a very absolutist view of free speech, says Overbeck. After taking the reins at Twitter, there was an increase in racism and hate speech on the platform. 

“Musk’s theory of absolute free speech didn’t account for the economic consequences of alienating advertisers who don’t like particular kinds of speech juxtaposed with their ads,” says Overbeck. 

This has resulted in advertisers pulling out in droves, which has had a negative impact on revenue.    

Another example HR leaders may also see at work is confirmation bias, which might result in a leader ignoring expert advice. For example, employees cautioned against the implementation of Twitter Blue, whereby Twitter users could pay for verification. In previous situations, Musk may have ignored expert recommendations and succeeded despite them, leading him to have confirmation bias that he can ignore recommendations in this scenario too. 

Authority bias could also take hold in this situation. For example, an employee might want to disagree or raise a point, but do not feel psychologically safe to do so. 

“For leaders with this narcissistic orientation, they’re less likely to take advice. They feel they’re the only ones they can count on and other people will lead them astray,” says Overbeck. 

“Musk may feel like he can rely on his own judgement and ignore advice that might be good for him.” 

Overbeck explains that the reason some of these extreme actions go ahead, such as mass layoffs, demanding perfection or mandating 20-hour workdays, is because they often bring about short-term benefits. 

“There’s reasonable evidence that a more coercive, less humanistic leadership style might generate short-term economic results,” she says. But the long-term consequences far outweigh short-term results, she says.

“It comes at the cost of employees’ mental health, physical health, and damaged relationships.”

“For leaders with this narcissistic orientation, they’re less likely to take advice. They feel they’re the only ones they can count on and other people will lead them astray,” – Jennifer Overbeck, Associate Professor of Management at Melbourne Business School

How can HR step in? 

First off, you need to understand what kind of leader you’re dealing with, says Overbeck. 

“You might have a leader who’s making bad decisions or who’s treating people negatively, but it’s not rooted in a strong and deeply-held fundamental worldview. Often it’s driven by insecurity or questions about their own competence as a leader.

“They might display this behaviour because they haven’t had training in leadership, or have observed other leaders who succeed using these tactics.”  

Here’s how Overbeck suggests HR can improve the situation: 

Understand their aims

To understand their underlying goals, Overbeck suggests having a conversation with that leader to understand what they want to achieve and how HR can help them achieve those goals.  

For example, let’s say a leader is advocating for redundancies so the business can cut costs and boost revenue. 

An HR professional can analyse the cost savings that might result from the redundancies, contrasted with the ongoing costs associated with the redundancies.  

“In that scenario, you could work with somebody in finance to do some modelling to show the longer-term impacts of those redundancies and identify other opportunities to help them achieve their goal of cutting costs and increasing profitability,” says Overbeck. 

Help them gain confidence

If you’re dealing with a leader who’s acting out because they don’t feel competent, respected or like they’ve earned their position, HR can subtly help the leader identify any competence gaps and present opportunities for upskilling. 

For example, Overbeck points to research about leaders who were promoted over their peers. 

“[Leaders in this situation] tend to become more coercive in the way they treat others. They assign them more humiliating and demeaning tasks,” says Overbeck.  

“My research has found that when there’s somebody in a position of power who’s not very respected, we anticipate that person is going to obstruct our goals and treat us badly. And so we preemptively become insubordinate and resistant and non-compliant with them,” she says.  

“To help boost their confidence, HR could amplify the person’s successes or team them up with partners who can help them achieve more wins. Or, you can find ways to give them credit by engineering situations where that person’s status becomes more salient.” 

Look for opportunities for coaching or upskilling

You can’t simply walk up to a leader and say, “I’ve noticed you’re incompetent, here’s how to upskill.” Instead, you need to find a subtle and gentle approach to helping them identify areas they can develop. 

An example Overbeck has come across is when a non-expert joins a team of experts. For example, say a finance person is put in charge of a team of engineers. 

“In these situations, the leader might be suspicious of the experts, get defensive, or withdraw from the team and keep their distance.” 

An HR professional could step in to acknowledge the situation and provide a solution. They could say something like: 

“I know your background is in finance so it must be tough being in this highly technical team of engineers. We’ve had a few people in a similar position and they’ve said it can be confronting and challenging. How are you feeling about it?” 

Whether or not they tell you the truth, you could follow up with something like: 

“One of the things we’ve found in the past is to provide some training for that leader, so when the engineers start throwing the jargon around you know what it means. Would you like to do something like that?” 

The key to doing this well is to point out deficiencies in the situation, not the leader.

What if you’re dealing with a more resistant leader? 

We have good news and bad news. 

The bad news is that if you’re dealing with a narcissistic or Machiavellian type who sits on the extreme end of the bad leader spectrum, know that they won’t be very influenceable, says Overbeck. 

“These leaders probably won’t be swayed by arguments about wellbeing, sustainability or collaborative benefits,” says Overbeck. “They pride themselves on not being influenceable – it’s part of their identity.” 

The good news? There are some meaningful actions you could take to improve the situation, but they need to be done strategically.  

Frame your argument to align with what this leader values

Whatever you need to achieve, you need to frame it in a way that matches this leader’s goal. To do so, you could use more strategic and instrumental language, even if what you’re trying to accomplish is benevolent or constructive. 

For example, if you want to encourage a leader to give employees an extra day of paid leave, you could phrase it like this: 

“If you give employees a day off, we know from reciprocity theory they’ll feel an even greater obligation to give something back to the company, which will improve productivity in the long run.” 

“By framing it like this, you’re telling the leader that the action might look soft, but it’s a way to get more out of people later,” says Overbeck. 

However, she cautions they might think you’re making them look weak if you try to influence them too much, and they will limit how often they acquiesce, no matter how rational your suggestions are. 

Seed the environment with micro-influencers

Another successful approach Overbeck has tried in the past is to make the leader think something was their idea by encouraging people to drop ideas in different settings. 

Overbeck shares a scenario she came across whereby the CEO couldn’t focus for long periods or follow along with complicated presentations. He was also likely to change his mind after everybody in the organisation had put energy and resources behind an initiative. 

“We took a coalition approach, so each member of the team took a different piece of the message. So nobody’s ever giving a half-hour presentation that the guy can’t follow when talking about financial implications.” 

Different people would have conversations about the issue around this leader, so he could pick up the entire narrative that could inform his opinion. Critically, he walked away thinking it was his idea. 

“You might have a leader who’s making bad decisions or who’s treating people negatively, but it’s not rooted in a strong and deeply-held fundamental worldview. Often it’s driven by insecurity or questions about their own competence as a leader. – Jennifer Overbeck, Associate Professor of Management at Melbourne Business School 

Managing upwards 

At some point in your HR career, you’ve probably needed to manage upwards to support a leader to make better decisions. The important thing for HR professionals is to practise empathy and understand what might be driving a leader’s behaviour.  

Most leaders are not trying to wreak havoc, and aren’t aware of the impact their behaviour is having on the workforce. It’s more likely that the leader has been observing certain kinds of behaviour and emulating it. 

“Sometimes when a leader is acting corrosively or cynically or making bad decisions, chances are that’s just how they’ve learned how to handle things,” says Overbeck. 

How HR steps up will be key to supporting them to learn new behaviours, and ultimately, become better leaders. 

Want to learn more about effective leadership and management? Sign up for AHRI’s short course to understand your leadership style and learn how to create key performance indicators.