Leadership style has a prominent role in promoting or destroying innovation whether it be in the work place or in the society in general. A destructive leadership is one which instead of creating an environment for success can create a toxic environment hidden in structures and formal relationships. Leaders can be treated as heroes but in some circumstances, they can become worshiped for the wrong reasons which are a culmination of their own ecology creation. So, whether a destructive leadership style is borne from an abusive leader, tyrannical tendencies, ruthlessness, bullying and other more aggressive retrogressive leadership behavior, innovation in the work place can become challenged and can result in hero worship to please the manager or whoever is in charge.

A leader can inherent an environment full of ‘yes’ subordinates however if that leader decides to encourage silence and “leader-praises”, this will quickly cultivate a culture of ‘hero worshiping’ in the work area or place of leadership. If by nature of their leadership style the leader is already a bully or forces “it’s my way or the high way” then it is inevitable that hero worshiping will occur, after all no one wants to be found on the bad side of the leader. This kills innovation! Under such circumstances, subordinates neither bring up any ideas, nor share their thoughts on the discussion agenda. They do not ask or probe for further clarification from the leader, choosing to remain silent. They nod their heads or look down, avoiding eye contact, speaking volumes through the silence and gestures. What the boss says goes. Unfortunately along the way, the organization loses great incites and new idea generation in the silence of people’s hearts and minds.

Tell-tale Signs of Hero Worshipping Leadership Style

One can tell that the leadership style is typically hero- worshipping when under all circumstances; the following is characteristic of all interpersonal deliberations between the leader and staff:

• The leader dominates all discussions and uses a telling and instruction tone;
• Staff silence, only speaking up when pouring overtures of accolades, singing praises, in a manner equivalent to ‘hero-worshiping’ to every statement and comment that the boss makes.

Examples of the usually very brief statements by subordinates are:

1. I absolutely agree with you;
2. You could never be more right;
3. Nothing to add or else I spoil your great points;
4. You are on point;
5. Thank you for the brilliant points, it is now for us to make sure that we do not disappoint you;
6. Great points there, we learnt a lot;
7. I like what you said and how you said it;
8. You are making a lot of sense.   

• The leader receives no constructive feedback from any of his subordinates;
• All feedback is positive and is in praise of the leader and the utterances;
• Fear of leaders and making mistakes by subordinates;
• There are negative consequences to mistakes including staff dismissals;
• Organizational communication is predominantly informal, with rumours and gossiping being part of a solid communication platform;
• Leaders making decisions based on unverified rumours;
• Overuse of external consultants by managers in-order to avoid unpopular decisions;
• Name dropping by subordinates;
• Lack of trust, insistence that all instructions and communication be in writing;
• Lack of teamwork, competitive, silo culture;
• Do not value employee engagement surveys that reflect employee opinions and employee attitudes about the employer;
• Feedback is top-down all the time;
• Performance reviews are a human resource department administrative requirement, no value addition from the process. Staff perceive the process as a source of demotivation as managers use it as a power tool to settle scores with staff.

Hero Worshipping Leadership Techniques

Leaders who encourage ‘hero worshiping’ culture have a cunning way of entrenching their desired norms through:

• Disrespectful, personal attacks on any contrary points to theirs that subordinates raise;
• Lack self-awareness, are emotionally unstable, take issues personally;
• Failure to handle excessive and complex pressure. Under such circumstances they lose composure and play blame game;
• Ineffective communication skills. Use intimidating and threatening language verbally and through gestures to instil fear;
• Interrupt and cut shot conversations with divergent points;
• Take comfort in the praise and worship as well as the silence from subordinates;
• Play self-praise;
• Never take responsibility for failure, allude all successes to themselves, take all the credit, even for results that are not attributable to them;
• Over use of ‘I’ for all the good news and ‘you’ for bad news;
• “Incentivise” a culture of hero-worshiping through promotions, preferential access to incentives and benefits, succession plans, favoritism;
• Are highly suspicious. Do not trust anyone. Depend on informal relationships they purposefully form especially with ‘in-group’ members (whom they give preferential treatment) to get information on who says what about them;
• Teamwork is by far undesirable to them. They prefer the individualistic culture;

Conclusion

Every leader needs that one person who can face them up and give them constructive feedback. As leaders charter the vision of the organization, they need insights and opinions from other team members. Some innovative new ideas for improvement can come from the least expected levels of staff.  The culture of innovation can only take place where there is trust and free flow of ideas and information. Leaders set the tone of the culture from the top that is supposed to permeate across all levels. It is prudent for leaders to always introspect and check out what style of leadership you are promoting and its effect on innovation. One cannot underestimate the value addition of innovation in this global, disruptively competitive, highly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous contemporary environment. Ability to accommodate diversity of opinions, views and feedback enhances a culture of personal development, learning and innovation.