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3 Subtle Traits of a Doomed Leader

They will cause your demise too.

Kyle Chastain
5 min readSep 16, 2021

We all know what bad leadership looks like. The question is, can you see bad leadership traits in yourself?

It’s easy to point out faults in others, especially in leaders. Robert Greene says we love symbolically killing our leaders as a form of ritual sacrifice. This ritual dates back to ancient times when kings were sacrificed to the gods. The difference is, today we slaughter leaders and public figures on social media.

If you take even a glance at history, you can see patterns of bad leadership. What most people do not realize is how being in a position of leadership shines a spotlight on your biggest flaws. Narcissism, demagoguery, and tyrannical tendencies are all easy to spot in the age of social media.

But there’s something you might be missing. The same traits that guarantee a leader’s demise are also alive and active in you. And they can cause your destruction too.

The leader who has something to prove

There is nothing worse than having an insecure boss. Just ask Seneca, the advisor to Nero. The emperor sentenced Seneca to death for allegedly taking part in a conspiracy to assassinate him. As a leader your insecurities are always on display.

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Kyle Chastain
Kyle Chastain

Written by Kyle Chastain

On a mission to become a better writer and storyteller | Building my "Insight" newsletter to 10k+ | Create the life you want: https://chastain.substack.com/

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