Dysfunctional leaders regularly move the goalposts. They take your work for granted and explode over the smallest of details. They never complete a vision before moving to the next. They never take blame for their own words and actions and rarely apologise. They love you one day and reject you the next. How do you work for one?
1. Aim for two different sets of goalposts- the necessary ones and the variable ones. It’s not as hard as you think and you’ll at least get something done.
2. Stop thinking that better leadership will make all the difference. It won’t make that much difference. And besides, you’re a competent person. Just get on with it and reduce your expectations.
3. Work according to your PB (personal best) and not according to a standard that even your leader cannot meet. Get happy with your best- nothing more, nothing less.
4. Allow for the imperfections in your leader. You have a set of them too. Every dysfunction is the underside of a strength of gifting or personality. Think on this.
5. See your faithfulness as seed sown that will reap faithfulness in others towards you in later times.
6. Don’t revert to being a victim and stop acting like a child. Stop pretending to be offended when you’re really not and stop allowing yourself to get ‘hurt’. You’re bigger that that.
7. See the funny side. It resets your emotions and gives you a higher ability to endure to the end. And it will end at the ordained time. It won’t last forever.
How to work for a Dysfunctional Leader
