The cost of leaders who lack culture skills
By Graham Browning
Leadership performance is close to my heart. For 20 years, I was a troubleshooter for difficult people issues, helping the willing to get it right and dealing with the fallout of leadership issues at all levels. If I learnt one thing, it is that performance is in the eye of the beholder.
We are human, and we all have blind spots. While most leaders strive for excellence, we will sometimes fall short. It’s what we do next that counts. A good measure of a leader is their ability to own and learn from their mistakes.
The lens of three fictional leaders—Ace, Bill, and Wolf—brings to life common pitfalls where poor leadership is too often tolerated:
Unskilled leadership 1: Ace - Nurturing disengagement and disillusion
Unskilled leadership 2: Bill - Competing not collaborating with colleagues
Unskilled leadership 3: Wolf - Self-protection and image over substance
Name: Ace
Age: 30
Role: line leader
Entering the office with her morning decaf cappuccino with oat milk, Ace decides not to attend the team’s people management training. Ace is always too busy and prioritises client work over ‘soft’ people topics.
This choice leads to significant costs: reduced team performance, low morale, and long-term damage to organisational culture.
Her dismissive attitude toward colleagues, such as ignoring a junior’s greeting or mismanaging work allocation, creates a toxic environment. Her inability to handle feedback effectively further alienates her team, eroding trust and productivity.
Ace reads leadership’s focus on profit as a green light to disengage from future-focused initiatives. Her decisions compromise integrity and risk unethical practices that could harm the organisation and others.
This scenario is a vivid reminder of how the wrong tone trickles down, with corrosive consequences.
Ace, a line leader, embodies the consequences of poor people skills
Unskilled leadership 1
Find out how the rest of this scenario unfolds
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