🎙️ Why some leaders look great but their teams are falling apart

🎖️ Some leaders know exactly how to look like effective leaders. They speak confidently, say the right things in meetings, and build strong visibility with senior leadership. But what happens when their team experiences something completely different?

In this episode of Command 2 Corporate, Army veteran and corporate executive LP explores the difference between leadership performance and leadership impact. Learn how performative leadership develops, why organizations often reward it, the damage it can do to trust and culture, and how leaders can build credibility through consistent actions, not appearances.

Whether you're a first-time manager, an experienced executive, or someone trying to become a better leader, this episode will challenge you to look beyond perception and focus on what truly earns respect.

🎯 What You'll Learn:

🔹 Why performative leadership is often rewarded
🔹 The warning signs your team notices first
🔹 How trust erodes when actions don't match words
🔹 The difference between executive visibility and real leadership
🔹 Practical ways to build credibility that lasts

If you've ever worked for a leader who looked impressive but left their team unsupported, share your experience in the comments.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

🔹 Leadership isn't measured by visibility, it's measured by the experience your team has working with you.
🔹 Teams watch what leaders do far more closely than what they say.
🔹 Authentic leadership earns trust through consistency, not presentation. 
🔹 Executive presence without accountability eventually damages credibility.
🔹 Organizations should reward leadership outcomes, not leadership optics.
🔹 Every leadership should periodically ask, "How would my team describe my leadership if I wasn't in the room?

If your calendar disappeared tomorrow and the only evidence of your leadership was what your team said about working with you, what story would they tell?


🗣️  Like, subscribe, and comment below. You can find C2C on YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts!

🔖  #PerformativeLeadership #LeadershipOptics #authenticleadership #accountability #executivepresence #leadership

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Have you ever worked for a leader who always knew exactly what to say in meetings? Always seemed to impress executives, but somehow their own team felt unsupported. Today we're talking about one of the most overlooked leadership traps. Not bad leadership, but leadership that's focused on appearance and impact. Welcome to Commander Corporate. How do you know when you're working with someone who's more focused on looking like a leader than actually leading? How do you know? Leadership is experienced differently depending on who's watching, right? I mean, for some. You know, some they maintain it same always. So senior executives may seem more confident, employees experience availability, peers experience collaboration, customers experience outcomes. The same leader can appear successful upward while struggling downward. And a lot of people out there know what I'm talking about. Performative leaders often excel at managing perception. That's terrible, terrible. But it happens. How many of you out there know that? How many of you have seen that? Performative leaders often excel at managing perception. Examples always speak first in meetings. Spotlight rangers want visibility on every project. Take credit publicly. Distance themselves from failures. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It was uh I'm gonna talk to so and so. I told them about that. I'll talk to them, I'll I'll get it, get it squared away. Focus heavily on executive optics. So constantly wanting to be seen, but as soon as something goes wrong, it wasn't me. No matter how much they put their names on it, it wasn't them. The warning signs employees notice rarely available when problems arise. Constantly talking about culture instead of improving it, constantly talking about it instead of improving it. I mean, I've been in countless meetings, workshops, sessions, off-sites, same crap, talking about how you want the culture to be. I want this high-performing team, I want this, I want, but don't have a clue as to what to do about it. I mentioned this before, talking about like being a coach, take footballs, any any sport, forget the sport, any sport. They're the coach that says, I want to win. Okay, coach, what's the play? What are we running? I don't know, just when. So, how are we supposed to get there? I don't know, just when same crap. Team accomplishments become personal accomplishments. My goodness. So instead of saying, Hey, I'm let me give all the credit to whoever did the work, they taking it all. Taking it all. Lots of speeches, constantly yapping, they monologuing, and very little coaching. I mean, I've experienced this numerous times where I mean, I if if if these walls could talk, and I'm not talking about these walls, I'm talking about when I'm at work, if those walls could talk. I mean, I'm not when the name drops, we're not gonna go there, but some of y'all right now, the things I just described, you're like, oh yeah, I know exactly what I'm dealing with that right now. I've been dealing with that for years. Of course you have. A lot of people have. But hey, not every polished leader is performative. I mean, some of them it's just natural, they just come off that way, you know, and that's the way it is, you know. But they're staying, like how I just described how it might look. That leader may look different depending on who's who's engaging with them. So their peers might view them one way, employees might view them another way, executives a different way. But I think someone that's true to themselves can be the same way amongst all of those people. Like you're consistent, you know, what you see is what you're gonna get across. It doesn't matter. I'm not gonna go in front of uh, you know, executive leaders and now I then perform, but then I go back and I'm totally different with some other, you know, I I don't want to, I don't want to get caught in it. I'm I'm not trying to spend so much time performing that it's exhausting. I'm not, I'm not about that life. And I think this is where, like in the military, you kind of, you know, everything was laid out for you. There was a map, a road map for your advancement. If you did what you had to do, you checked basically literally checking boxes that you, you know, did this schooling, served in this role, got this kind of rating, whatever the case may be, and then you're, you know, whether it's a point system to a certain extent, and then it's like, are you taking on the necessary responsibilities to move to the next rank? But you know what you have to do, it's on you as an individual. I mean, yes, you do get evaluations from higher ups, you know, you want to be recognized for your company, but you just need to put yourself out there and just do your job and do it well. That's it. And that's not to say that executive presence doesn't matter, but some companies take that overboard, you know, with the executive presence. You know, they it could then become where everyone has to look and sound a certain way, and that certain way is the same way, so they just look like copies. But sometimes you miss those hidden gems because of what you want people to look and sound like. But is that what's needed? Is that what wherever you're trying to put that leader and whoever they're going, whomever they're gonna lead, is that what that group needs? Do they need that cookie-cutter executive presence or do they need something else? Look past it. What do those people need? The problem starts when image becomes more important than impact. And I mean, I would see to me, that's like the people above can't see, they're so glossed over by the performance, they can't see through that and say, This person is full of crap, they're not really about what they you know say, it's just a lot of fluff, a lot of talk. How does someone become performative without necessarily intending to? I mean, make more many leaders don't wake up wanting to fake leadership, instead, maybe it's promotion pressure. I got promoted, now I gotta rise to the occasion. But I think this is where sometimes, or many times, the leadership above them is failing them to prepare them for the promotion. Should they go to some kind of leadership class? Of course. Should they learn how to be a leader? Not just, hey, like I've talked about before, you're a great individual contributor. Let me go ahead and make you a leader in charge of people. What skills have they displayed that says they're ready to be promoted? That's crazy. That they're ready to lead people. I'm sorry, not ready to be promoted, ready to lead people. When have they been in charge? When have they known how to deal with certain situations? How can they separate themselves, treat people fairly? All of the above. They don't know. Not have favoritism, not have biases, be impartial when it comes to everyone. Sometimes executive uh expectations put on them, and so they feel again so much pressure that they have to perform. But it's like just do your job and execute, do it well, you know. And if that means you're utilizing your resources, your team of your resources, utilize them, but also give credit where credit is due. Fear of failure, that could be why they become this uh performative person. Imposter syndrome. I mean, I've hear that a lot where people, you know, you know, I'm not fit to do this. I don't I can't believe I'm doing this, whatever the case may be, and now they're somehow performing or political environments. And to me, when it's office politics and that's the way it is, I don't me personally, I don't want to be a part of it. I I just don't think, and that could be my downfall, you know, and that could be many people's downfall. It's like I'm not gonna play the political game, and so in that instance, you just maybe miss out on promotions, maybe miss out on getting recognized, maybe you're just stuck where you are, but again, you stay true to yourself. I'm not about to perform, I'm not about that. I am a leader, I'm gonna operate as one. I'm definitely not about that performative stuff. Sometimes organizations reward visibility, nice bedazzled presentation, speaking well, executive relationships. So people capitalize on that. But that's the organization to me's failure in recognizing fluff conversations, chit chat over actual work and deliverables and outcomes. It's like you're so glossed over, and and we all see it, plenty of people see it. People that are not fit get promoted. Everyone, all their team members below them will know this person is not, they're they're not it, but no one above will see it. No one above will see it, and the next thing you know, they're getting promoted again, and the next thing you know, they're freaking who knows what, high level, and you're like, How the hell would this happen? And they won't know anything more than you, but it's all on how they went about getting there that you didn't do, and it's not to say you did anything wrong, you stay true to yourself. They didn't, but it took them places because that's the culture of the organization, which is terrible, and so with the with those things that the organizations are rewarding, instead of team development, so an actual retention and coaching and accountability, you have so many people, so many people in leadership positions, or let me reframe that, rephrase that positional leadership, that have no clue as how to develop their team, how to retain people, how to coach, how to ensure that everyone is equally accountable for their work. You're not giving passes on one person but being hard on another because of whatever reason, and you don't know how to get through to them, you don't connect with them. So you just say, you know what, you do your thing. Yeah, I checked the box, I have my one-to-one, but I'm more focused on this one. People naturally optimize for what's rewarded, naturally. So if culture is gonna say, hey, I reward visibility, speaking well, you come in to lunch with me all the time as my employee or whatever the case may be. You know what? I'm gonna take care of you just because of all of these things. I like the way you delivered that presentation, even though we didn't hit any metrics, even though we're off target on everything, you deliver that really well that people like you. And I've heard that. Let me tell you, I um excuse me, I remember finding out that someone was rated the highest you could be. The criteria at the time was based on let's say you have to document your performance reviews in the in a system. The criteria is if there's if there is a review that is not documented and you rate them high, it's going to automatically get knocked down to average because you don't have any documentation. Which seems fair. It's not fair for the employee. It's fair for the it's it's actually a ding on the leader because they didn't do their job. So actually the employee does suffer. So they could have been a rock store, did all of this stuff, document all this stuff, but because a leader didn't document it and never did a formal review, then the employees ding. That sucks. But that's the criteria. So then it says, okay, it sucks, but you've level set for everyone. If you didn't document it as a leader, everyone is gonna get an average score. Except the one that is talked, gave great presentations, spoke well, and the executives liked them. Now they're rated freaking as high as you can possibly go. Yet they had nothing documented at all. It's just people knew them, they liked them, they presented well. Would you call bullshit on that? I would. But it it flew, and then fast forward, the person turned out to be very toxic. Beef with the leader, next thing you know they quit. But not without getting a probably you know a higher pay raise, a a good bone, all these rewards, just as you said, just for those things, though you're not meeting the base criteria. I mean, it's it's crazy, and and social media influence has influence a lot for a lot of people, right? Leadership has become performative online too. Um, everyone wants to quote Simon Sinek. That's true. Hey, I'm guilty of it. I'm guilty of it. I've referenced one of his videos because I mean he hit it home definitely on toxic leadership. I have done that, so I won't I won't say that I'm not guilty of that. Uh, very few are having difficult conversations on Tuesday morning. So, yeah, that's a thing. Sometimes performative leadership comes from insecurity. I mean, I I I would 100% believe that, but I would think after performing so much, those people would be exhausted. Like go home at the end of the day or at the end of the week and feel like you just like you just basically we're in in uh Broadway shows all week performing. At the end, you're exhausted. So, you know, they have something to prove that I'm I'm the smartest person. I can't admit to my mistakes, I have to peer like I'm in control. What's happening inside a team long before executives realize there's a leadership problem? This is where we have to think, like and really look at, you know, or think about it from the employer's spectrum. You think about it out there, you know, when when it when it has infiltrated, the people really see what's going on, what's happening to the people now. Well, trust slowly erodes, you know, people will stop saying, I have an idea, I have a suggestion. I just talked to uh a colleague that I'm coaching that basically came to me and said they feel like their their light is dimming, you know, they and I know that they are not being valued, you know, and they come up with great ideas, and they came and said, you know, I'm not gonna bring them forth anymore. And I challenged her and I said, you know, share that with your leader. You know, say that you've expressed great ideas and they are, but they always get dismissed or knocked down until someone else brings it up and then it's a great idea. Or it's just just completely dismissed just because the person's not a favorite, you know. And it just becomes it doesn't matter, why should I do that? But then at the end of the day, if you don't put that best foot forward and you're not speaking up now, fast forward a few months or fast forward to the end of the year review, oh, you never bring ideas to the table, you just stay quiet, you don't speak up, you don't talk. But when I did, it was dismissed, no one cared. You didn't even care. But now that I stop, you're like, where was that person? Where why aren't you doing it anymore? For what reason? Why should I? Innovation disappears, accountability shifts, you know, people begin protecting themselves. Oh, I know that's gonna happen because that's where instead of it's just being like talking, they're gonna want everything documented, you know, because they want to look out for themselves, they're gonna document everything, you know, and of course, people are gonna feel like there's no psychological safety. That's a big one, you know. You can't speak freely at all. And and good employees will leave, you know. Usually the best people leave first, and I've seen that firsthand. Seen that firsthand. Lowest performers, they'll stay, you know, they're good, you know, they will stay. But those top people, they'll be on the hunt. Middle managers, they become exhausted, you know. And I let me tell you, exhausted is an understatement. You let someone, the next level above you, be a performative leader. They're in meetings, they're running their mouth all the time, they're trying to let everyone know that how smart they are, look at everything I know. But then when it comes to actually deliver the tangible work, they can't do it. They just give a lot of lip servers, but they're not going to do any actual work. They're gonna go to the person right below them and say, do all of this stuff, basic stuff, but they can't do it, they can't deliver on it, so they just keep pushing it off, and you push it off so much, and then it just becomes, well, that's your job. You push it off on the person below you, and you tell them, well, that's part of your job. When did that become part of my job? Why are you asking? Excuse me, why are you asking this? Why don't you just do it? It's simple enough. Just do it. You email me and then I give it to you, and then you're like, Well, can you change this? Can you do this? Help me do this, can you just do it because all they are this and they get recognized for this? But to actually deliver something, they don't do it. Then you give them the great idea, you're the next one down, and the employee does, they take it, and they're the ones that's making it shine as if it's their own. But then coming back and saying, Hey, you need to do better. You need to do better so that I can look better. If someone realizes they've been managing their image more than their people, how do they rebuild trust? You know, leaders gain a credibility when they say, I've missed something, you know, they just have to admit it. That's for one. You know, I dropped the ball, I should have been there, I can be more this, I can do that, something, and start slowing down, forgetting about the image, not being the first one to speak, not bumping their gums constantly, and start giving credit where credit is due. And also maybe just stepping up, do a little bit of work, get your hands dirty a little bit. I literally had a leader one time, and I help out, you know, in my previous roles. I've always helped the people below. I'll learn their work, I'll try to support them as best I can and actually be, you know, if they're out, be a backup as much as I can to help. And I remember a leader above me talking to someone below me and saying, like, look, the way you've restructured things, look, I understand that you know, you think Larry can help, but that that's not his role. He's just gonna have to do more work. Not that, well, I'm here too, I can help too. No, he just needs to do more work. Are you kidding? How many of y'all have faced that? You know, they don't get their hands dirty at all, they're not putting together a presentation, they can't come up with an idea without being prompted. Nothing. Nothing, they can't do anything, they can't keep track of what's happening in their own team, so people have to document it for them so that they can go forth and speak about it, have no clue as to what's going on day to day. No clue. It's ridiculous. But in order for them to improve and rebuild, they should listen before speaking. You know, just learn. So many leaders sit in a company for so long, they could be there a year and still not have a clue as to how things actually operate. How many of y'all have seen that? Come on. How many have seen that? Don't even know what's going on. Don't even know where processes are. Don't know how to navigate drives, SharePoint, whatever. Have no clue. It'll constantly be like, send it to me. How many of you got that before? Can you email that to me? I did three times already. Email at me again. Where is it? You can find it on this page. Where? On this link. Where exactly? Go look for it. Find it. Why do first of all? Why don't you know where it is to begin with? Come on. Come on. And they could start by doing small things consistently. You know, how is that trust rebuilt? Follow through, showing up, beginning to coach, keeping commitments, removing obstacles, doing all those things that a leader should naturally do. Give credit publicly. If just say, hey, I can't take the credit. This was all so and so. Celebrate others. Give shout outs, especially when it comes, or you know what's even better? Let's say they have to present, you know, if if the forum permits, and they have to present maybe to executives, maybe just some senior leaders, other leaders, bring that junior person that's done the hard work and put together the great thing with you. And say, I know this may be, you know, whatever, unconventional, you know, it was not expected, but I brought uh Johnny here, uh, or Sarah, you know, whoever they actually put this together, I'd like them to speak to it. Go ahead. That twofold, what happened? First of all, that the leader, he's on he said, Look, they did the work. You look good as a leader by saying, let me showcase someone else that's done the work. People are gonna be like, Man, your employee did a great good job on you for hiring such a spectacular person and bringing them here in the first place. It gives that person some exposure, bless them to see, like, wow, I was able, I get an opportunity that gives credibility from your junior person for you because they're like, Wow, you didn't have to do that. You let me go out there and shine. That's great. Not that it'll happen all the time, the forum has to allow for that, but you've done it. That's a that's a huge move. Why not? It's a huge move. Why not? Let me ask you this. If I interviewed your team tomorrow, what would they say you're great at? And what would they quietly wish you'd change? Great at? Honestly, for me, I would have to say, excuse me, I feel like I'm about to sneeze. I would have to say, probably the leadership, believe it or not. I am really I try my best to be a people's leader. So I would say that's probably one of those things that uh they would say I'm good at. Um, what I could probably do uh that I maybe change, they may want me to get know a little bit more about certain things. It's not to say that I don't know, but there's a lot of moving pieces. They might say, I wish you knew a little bit more in certain areas. I mean, right, that that's fine because we do have backups, they might say, Hey, I wish you knew a little bit more in certain areas. Hey, I'll take that. That's not not a bad thing, you know, because there's plenty that I don't know, and I have more of a very high level on, or I might say, like, look, I'm not in the in the weeds of those details, I don't know. And so I think they might say that, you know, they they wish I'd change. So hey, but our authentic leadership does welcome feedback. So I think I would ask, like, what do you think? Like, ask your team, you know, if if you have the team that can have that open and honest cut type discussion and and share feedback, you know, because I used to say to them, you know, how can I help you? Um, you know, what can I do to better support you? You know, uh, anything I can do to improve. I've asked that before, and and ask for anything, you know, and whatever they you know share, okay. I'll make a note of it and I'll see what I can do. Why not? Performative leadership protects ego. You gotta let that go. Authentic leadership welcomes feedback. Performative leadership protects ego, authentic leadership welcomes feedback. What do you want people to remember when it comes to you as a leader? What do you want them to remember? Your presentations that you spoke well, that you were able to hobnob with the executives, or how you made people feel? Is it about that you always spoke? People will always remember whenever I was in a meeting. I was the first one to speak. I commanded the room, I took all the attention, they're gonna remember me. Or it's about how you made other people feel, how you propped up other people, how you made other people step up and give them an opportunity, how you helped others to shine this week. Don't ask your team, how am I doing? Ask what's one thing I that helps you succeed. What's the one thing I do that helps you succeed? Then ask, what's one thing I do that unintentionally makes your job harder? I don't think people, some of those leaders out there, they're ready for that one. What's one thing I do unintentionally that makes your job harder? And honestly, to say unintentionally, I mean, I think some of it's intentional. You know, I think it is intentional. But but in asking that question, and I don't there's plenty that wouldn't be ready for that. They're never they would never ask that because what what what that would require is that you listen, you don't defend, you don't explain, you write it down, but then you have to do something about it. So, what if that means you make my job harder by pushing off administrative tasks for me that I feel that you could do yourself? Like what you run them down for them. Okay, the leader writes it down, doesn't defend, but can they now do the work? Can they do that administrative work? Can they do it? I don't know. You know, I don't think they would be ready to because it would take them some time. Because now it's like, okay, now I gotta take a step back and I gotta figure out how to do these things. But hell, with AI, everyone should be able to figure it out. Like you could Google YouTube, I mean, you could take it old school, YouTube, forget it. You could figure it out, but you you gotta step up, you have to step up. I mean, so many of us can out there can can probably name people that are performative leaders, and you know it, that performative leaders, you know it, you've seen it. You know, we talk about those people speaking up that you know, want to be in everyone's face, always got to talk first in a meeting, all of these things, monologuing during meetings, talking over people. Someone's asking someone a question, they answer it. I mean, I'm sorry I didn't ask you. But then the thing is, the leader, the person that asked the question, and let's say it's a senior person, doesn't stop them, say, I'm sorry, I wasn't speaking to you. Sorry about that. Can you and you redirect to the person who you asked and say, go ahead and uh you know, give me your answer, please? And don't allow for that kind of disruption, don't give place to that, don't allow them to shine. Take that away, take it away. Last point, I'm gonna call this a leadership challenge. This week, ask one trusted member of your team a simple question. What's one thing I do that helps you succeed? What's the one thing I could do better? Then just listen. See what they say, see what they have to take notes and figure out how you could then take that feedback and be that much better.