Boogeyman Leadership

Have you endured awful leaders in your career? Dr. Tom DePaoli sure has. In his new book Boogeyman Leadership: How to Turn Your Employees into Listless Zombies, he showcases poor leaders and their tactics that inevitably failed. Dr. Tom believes it is very important to know what does not work first, so that an aspiring good leader does not waste time on such approaches. He does not pretend to offer any silver bullet solutions to these poor policies. Boogeyman Leadership recounts many bad leadership ideas and illustrative stories to make sure the reader crosses these schemes off their leadership list. The book is not a solemn academic book or a guide to great leadership success. Its purpose is to give examples of terrible leadership and management tactics that Dr. Tom and others have experienced in their careers. Dr. Tom urges the reader not to use them or support them. Dr. Tom has had careers in business, the military and academia. All these arenas had some terrible leaders that he had to endure.

Dr. Tom defines boogeyman leadership as the use of poor and intimidating leadership tactics whose purpose is to terrify employees and instill distrust, apathy and fear. The result is a zombie-like listless state. Some of the flawed leadership approaches and stories are similar. He apologizes in advance for this. But this redundancy is even more revealing, because very bad leaders often use the same tired strategies even in different organizations. Dr. Tom advises you to be ready for them! Again, he reiterates that it is more important to know what not to do.

Unfortunately, according to Dr. Tom, these failed strategies are becoming more, not less common. He notes that there are a lot of really sad stories out there about leadership and management follies. He estimates that 80-90% of his bosses or leaders used some of these dreadful tactics. The book has sarcasm, humor and some hard to believe stories, used by many of the leaders or bosses that Dr. Tom and others have experienced. Dr. Tom suggests the reader re-visualize their own personal leaders, that they have had, who have used the very same or similar defective devices. Dr. Tom sadly notes that these failed leadership ploys are becoming even more common, destructive and hurtful. In the beginning of the book, Dr. Tom does provide a short list of some good leadership principles for the reader that he has learned over his career. He implores you to review and consider using them.