If a manager is telling you, or a group of you, that his [or her] leadership team is providing you with leadership, then you need to think very hard about what you are being sold.

Firstly, if they feel the need to tell you they are providing you with this highly-questionable interpretation of leadership, then you need to question their interpretation. The first question I ask is, exactly what leadership model are you applying here? The responses are typically comical, I have never received an answer with a comprehensive model applied. They just cannot answer the question because they do not know, they know the term leadership is fashionable and that is about it.

Based on my experiences, these so-called [and self-promoted] leadership teams are nothing more than self-elected, self-indulgent and noticeably self-preservation groups. This is based on an application of cronyism and favouritism masquerading as teamwork but are really self-serving obstacles to productivity and efficiency. From what I have directly witnessed, this is a cohort of people engaged in self-promotion with the sole task of getting out of work. I see people in positions with measurable duties, these people are no longer frontline staff engaged in non-aligned activities related to their actual job description.