Working with passive-aggressive people can be a struggle, to say the least. They’ll agree with a smile to any request, but whether they’ll follow through is uncertain. Some projects seem to stall on their desks; certain tasks get less effort and attention. Passive-aggressive leaders, in particular, can have a harmful effect on teams.
Passive aggression can be part of a pattern of counterproductive behaviour that Hogan calls Leisurely. While an attitude of pleasant cooperation is a great asset in a leader or coworker, it can become a liability when it conceals negative emotions and affects engagement and productivity.
Signs of Passive-Aggressive Leadership
Hogan assesses three aspects of personality: the bright side (everyday personality), the dark side (potential derailers), and the inside (motives and values). The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) describes derailers, or the dark side of personality. These are behaviours that can become counterproductive in times of stress, pressure, complacency, or boredom. This is derailment. On a day-to-day basis, they may be strengths, but when derailment occurs, they can damage careers. The Leisurely scale measures behaviours ranging from cooperative and openly expressive to independent and quietly resistant. At their best, people with high Leisurely scores may seem agreeable, diplomatic, and easy to work with. They tend to protect their own time and pace and value their independence. At their worst, they may seem stubborn, uncooperative, and resentful of interruptions or oversight. Leisurely is one of the 11 derailers Hogan measures using the HDS.
Because Leisurely people can feel resentful toward authority and annoyed by interruptions, they may distance themselves from others, cause productivity delays, and pursue private agendas. They’ll say yes but mean no. Over time, failure to follow through on commitments damages their reputations and relationships.
How Passive Aggression Causes Team Dysfunction
A leader’s passive-aggressive behaviour undermines their team’s trust and effectiveness. Something as small as making others wait for them can create interpersonal friction over time. Routinely saying one thing and doing another damages team psychological safety. The key is the difference between what is shown and what is felt.
Others may perceive such a leader as stubborn, sulky, and irritable when the negative feelings they usually conceal start affecting their behaviour in extreme ways. For instance, they procrastinate or dismiss deadlines for work they think is unimportant. Or they produce work that is well below their capabilities. They might resist complying with requests or feedback, feel resentful when interrupted, or serve their own interests instead of the team’s.
Undependable behaviour in a leader teaches their team not to rely on them. When asking for help provokes retaliatory delays, teams learn to stop asking. They stop bringing needs to the leader entirely.
How to Manage Leisurely Behaviour
With strategic self-awareness, Leisurely leaders can preserve their independence and diplomacy while ensuring their yes actually means yes. Leisurely leaders often hold priorities for themselves that differ from those of the team, department, or organisation. They may resist leadership development unless persuaded that change will benefit them. An exercise that surfaces shared goals and values can help reconnect a Leisurely leader to the team’s mission.
Open communication is one of the most effective ways to address Leisurely behaviour. Building boundary-setting skills can help a passive-aggressive leader recognise when saying no is appropriate. Likewise, building assertiveness skills can help them say no professionally. Roleplaying with a Hogan-certified coach helps the leader explore safe ways to express frustration or annoyance in the workplace.
To gain trust through reliability, leaders with Leisurely tendencies should set achievable due dates and share these with their team. Making fewer commitments overall—and keeping the ones they do make—builds the reliability that earns trust.
Expert Contributor
Jaclyn Menendez, PhD, is a consulting manager on the talent solutions team at Hogan Assessments.
*This article originally appeared on Hogan Assessments.
