The World Vs Tyranny

There are good and bad leaders in history. Over time, bad leaders have earned nicknames such as “tyrant,” “dictator,” and “bully.” These are all fitting names for unsuccessful leaders because they rule by fear rather than inspiration. But what makes someone a bad leader? How can you spot one? And how do you deal with them if you find yourself in an organization with terrible leadership? This article will answer these questions by examining some examples of bad leaders in history, their characteristics, and their encounters.

How to Identify Bad Leaders

They may be ineffective at providing direction for the team to follow, and they might not have a clear vision of what success looks like. Or they could be bad leaders because they are bad people that show no signs of remorse when it comes to hurting others.

Bad Leaders In Business

There are bad leaders today, too. Some examples include CEOs like Martin Shkreli and Elizabeth Holmes. They have been called “frauds” for their bad leadership that provides false promises and bad decision-making (Shkreli raised the price of a lifesaving cancer drug by 5000%, while Holmes knowingly kept bad blood testing results concealed).

Bad Leaders Today

In your own small company, you might have a bad leader who always skips meetings, badmouths other employees in front of the rest of the team, or never takes your opinions into account when making decisions. Bad leaders tend to badmouth employees behind their backs, don’t build relationships with subordinates or customers (and aren’t very friendly), and make bad decisions for the company because they’re selfish.

List of Famous Bad leaders

There’s nothing quite like learning from history’s bad leaders. Their poor decisions, disastrous policies, and lack of foresight are all there, and it’s all there for us to study and learn from. And that’s why we’ve collected the best examples of bad leadership in history, all in one place. From Ancient Rome to 20th century America, these men and women knew how to screw things up. So sit back, relax, and enjoy as we explore the incompetence, hubris, and just plain lousy luck that doomed these leaders to failure. You won’t want to miss a parade of human folly.

Attila the Hun

Atilla, aka “scourge of God,” was an uneducated barbarian born in the fifth century. After his uncle’s death, Attila and his brother Bleda took control of the Hunnic Empire and signed a peace truce with the Eastern Roman Empire. A few years later, Attila led a series of vigorous attacks on the Romans by breaching the peace agreement and demanded gold and gems to stop the fight. The lust for power blinded him so much that he killed his brother Bleda to rule the empire alone.

• During his callous rule extending from 434 to 453AD, Attila used to say, “There, where I have passed, the grass will never grow again,”

• Attila died of severe nose bleeding in 453AD when he celebrated his second marriage feast. Nobody knows about his burial site as his servants got killed after death.

Queen Mary

Aka “Bloody Mary,” was the only child of King Henry VII. She was a bloodthirsty religious fanatic who ruled England from 1553 to 1558 as the first queen ruler, and Mary marked her five-year infamous rule with tyranny and viciousness. Mary died in 1558 at 42 because of the influenza epidemic and ovarian cancer. During her reign, she ordered to burn off hundreds of protestant heretics alive at the stake and threw their ashes in the river. She gets depicted as a zombie and villain in most portraits and advertisements.

Joseph Stalin

He was a ruthless dictator who ruled the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1953. During his reign, Stalin forced rapid “collectivization” in the Soviet Union and converted the individual peasant households into state-run collective farms. He imprisoned and killed millions of independence-minded Ukrainians who refused to give up their livelihoods. He punished them by inflicting severe starvation, which wiped out 13% of the Ukrainian population.

Adolf Hitler

A violent racial nationalist and leader of the Nazi party became German chancellor in 1933 and ruled until his death in April 1945. He stained his hands with the blood of millions of people in the Holocaust and World War II. Under his dreadful rule, the Nazis killed almost 11 million people to fulfill Hitler’s plan. Hitler devised a strategy to create his’ master race’ by wiping out his political foes, Jews, gypsies, Slavs, and gays. He followed the path that led to destruction.

Idi Amin

Also known as “Butcher of Uganda,” a military leader announced himself as President after overthrowing Uganda’s elected government. He ruled from 1971-to 1979 and drove Uganda into a dire economic disaster. As the situation became uncontrollable, Amin went into exile in Libya, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, where he died on 16 August 2003.

• During his eight-year reign of terror, Uganda has seen a ruthless massacre of almost 300,0000 civilians, including farmers, clerks, and students.

• His rule created unrest in Uganda until Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere invaded Uganda by expelling Amin in 1979.

Terrible Leaders: Dishonorable Mention

Who says history has to be boring? We all know them. These unethical leaders in history have led their countries and organizations to destruction. This section explores the dark side of leadership, from dictators to religious leaders, and what we can learn from their examples.

Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huangdi ruled as the first emperor of China from 247-to 210 B. C. During his rule, he forcibly took control of adjacent states to expand his dynasty and enslaved the people. Qin’s rule is marked as one of the most authoritarian regimes, carrying out the massacre of scholars who disagreed with his ideas. Apart from ruthless killing, he buried almost four hundred and sixty Confucian scholars alive and burnt their books. Shi’s cruelty did not end there, and he castrated the captured states to distinguish them from his people.

Genghis Khan 

Genghis Khan was a Mongol leader who rose from a humble beginning and established the most extensive empire. After uniting the Mongolian tribes, Khan expanded his empire by conquering central Asia and China. He gets characterized as one of the most brutal and scornful leaders for his murderous exploits. During his rule, he asked his enemies to surrender and killed the families of those who denied accepting his dominion. 

He killed the Khwarezmian Empire’s aristocrats by pouring molten silver in their eyes and ears and wiped out the entire civilian population.

Tomas de Torquemada    

During the Spanish Inquisition, an organization within the Roman Catholic Church was established to punish Jews and Muslims. The pope appointed inquisitors to expel them out of Spain, and Torquemada was given Grand Inquisitor’s charge. As a grand inquisitor between 1483 and 1498, he formulated tribunals in all cities to permit torture against the Muslims and Jews. Tomas also persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to exile the Jews and viciously burnt almost 2000 citizens dubbing them heretics.

Pol Pot  

Pol Pot was the chief of the Cambodian revolutionary group who planned the Cambodian genocide. He is cast as a demon in Cambodian mythology as he tries to annihilate the Cambodian civilization to set up a new regime. During his reign as a Prime minister from 1976 to 1979, it was always “Pol Pot killed my husband,” or “Pol Pot destroyed the temple.”

His policies killed almost 2 million people, wiping out 25% of his population. His atrocity was not satisfied just by killing innocent people as he ordered babies to be torn limb by limb.

Ivan the Terrible 

Ivan the Terrible was the first Russian Tsar whose tyrant rule pushed Russia to collapse. As a kid, he relished throwing animals from high buildings, and as a monarch, he savored impaling, burning, beheading, and blinding people. He’s the hallmark of poor leaders in history. During his horrendous tenure extending from 1530 to 1584, he ordered the mass slaughter of more than 60,000 people. Blinded with rage and brutality, Ivan did not spare his family. He killed his son and beat his son’s pregnant wife in 1581, and she miscarried.

Final Word On Bad Leadership

Leadership is a complex, challenging skill to master, and people who don’t know what they are doing can make it even more difficult. There are many different types of leaders worldwide, but all terrible leadership has some commonalities: lack of trust, poor communication skills, and little or no involvement with staff. If you find yourself in a leadership position or are aspiring to be one, it is essential to avoid the mistakes these unsuccessful leaders in history made.