A Masterclass in Lousy Leadership, Courtesy of Congress

My columns on leadership typically focus on strategies and best practices that enhance leadership capabilities. This time, I’m taking a different approach. Instead of highlighting what good leaders do, let’s examine what poor leadership looks like because there are moments when failure provides the clearest lessons.

And right now, the best (or worst) example is Congress.

As I write this, the government shutdown has entered its 30th day (On November 12, the House voted 222–209 to end the government shutdown). Both political parties remain entrenched, waiting for the other to blink. Each side blames the other—Democrats calling it the “Trump shutdown,” Republicans the “Schumer shutdown.” Leaders from both parties continue their press tours, claiming to act “for the American people,” even as hundreds of thousands of government employees go without pay and more than 40 million Americans risk losing their food assistance.

Meanwhile, Congress continues collecting paychecks. It’s a modern-day case of “Nero fiddles while Rome burns.”

I’ll leave political finger-pointing to the pundits. What matters here is leadership—or, more accurately, the absence of it. What Congress has modeled during this shutdown are the essential traits of lousy leadership. Let’s examine four of them.

1. Letting Ego Drive Decisions

General Colin Powell once said, “Don’t let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.”

That’s a principle that members of Congress seem to have forgotten. Their egos have become inseparable from their political positions. Having spent weeks publicly defending their stance as the only “right” one, they now see compromise not as collaboration but as personal defeat.

Great leaders understand that ego is the enemy of progress. In business, negotiations are rarely won through rigid posturing. Effective executives know when to stand firm, when to pivot, and when to compromise for the greater good. Time, resources, and credibility are all forms of capital—wasting them serves no one.

In Washington, however, the calculus is different. There’s no P&L to balance, no quarterly earnings to answer for. It’s not their money, it’s ours. With no financial accountability, ego becomes the default motivator. That’s a luxury no responsible leader should ever afford.

If your self-worth is defined by being “right,” your organization and everyone who depends on it will pay the price. Keep your ego in check, or it will take your credibility down with it.

2. Failing to Lead by Example

This one is personal for anyone who has ever led a team. Leadership is about setting the standard, not exempting yourself from it.

While federal employees are missing paychecks, Congress remains on the payroll. These same officials who lament how “the American people are suffering” continue to cash their own checks. It’s hypocrisy in its purest form.

In the military, leaders eat last and sleep last. The welfare of their troops comes first. That principle applies to every organization, private or nonprofit. If your team struggles while you remain insulated, you’re not leading; you’re exploiting.

If members of Congress truly wanted to lead, they would suspend their own pay until the shutdown ends. Imagine the urgency that would create. Instead, as Bloomberg reported, some senators from both parties were planning fundraising trips during the shutdown—Republicans in South Carolina, Democrats in California. Whether or not those events took place, the optics alone reveal a stunning lack of awareness.

Real leaders don’t ask others to endure hardship they’re unwilling to share. Leadership means modeling the values you expect from others, even when it costs you personally.

3. Abandoning Real Communication

Leaders communicate constantly—but effective communication isn’t about airtime; it’s about impact.

Congress members talk endlessly to the media and their donors yet avoid talking to each other. They issue sound bites instead of solutions, accusations instead of dialogue. They’ve replaced communication with performance.

In business, that kind of dysfunction would cripple an organization. When I was at Microsoft, I dealt with difficult people, sometimes uncooperative, sometimes manipulative—but the mission always came first. You can’t drive results without engaging directly with those who challenge you. Emotional intelligence means being able to set aside personal feelings for the sake of organizational success.

Today’s Congress is incapable of that discipline. The deep polarization has made collaboration unthinkable. It wasn’t always this way. Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, political opposites, routinely battled over policy—but they also shared drinks, conversation, and respect. They fought hard but knew how to close ranks when the country needed it.

That’s what leadership maturity looks like: the ability to disagree without being disagreeable. Real leaders communicate not just to be heard but to move forward.

4. Forgetting Who You Serve

Perhaps the most egregious leadership failure of all is forgetting the mission.

Many in Congress have lost sight of who they serve. Fundraising, partisanship, and personal ambition have overtaken the public interest. They’ve mistaken self-promotion for service and optics for outcomes.

In business, leaders know exactly who they serve—shareholders, employees, customers. Every decision must be connected to that purpose. In security leadership, the mission is even more straightforward: safeguarding people, assets, and reputation.

When leaders forget their stakeholders, they drift into self-preservation mode. They make decisions for the benefit of their image or career, not for their organization or the people who depend on them. That’s when trust erodes and culture collapses.

As leaders, we must continually ask ourselves, Who do I serve? Our teams? Our shareholders? Our clients? The greater mission? The answer should never be “myself.”

A disciplined leader checks their motives daily. The best leaders operate from a place of stewardship, not entitlement. The worst—like many in Congress—lose sight of their purpose and rationalize it as politics.

The Leadership Takeaway

The current dysfunction in Washington may feel distant from the C-suite, but the behaviors on display are painfully familiar in any organization that’s lost its way. Ego-driven decision-making, lack of accountability, poor communication, and self-interest are universal indicators of failing leadership—whether in a boardroom or on Capitol Hill.

The difference is that in business, poor leadership has measurable consequences: declining revenue, eroded trust, and lost market share. In government, the fallout lands on millions of citizens.

The antidote is simple, but not easy. Keep ego in check. Lead by example. Communicate with purpose. Remember who you serve.

These principles may sound basic, but they are what separate real leaders from those merely holding titles. Leadership isn’t about rhetoric, status, or personal comfort—it’s about responsibility, humility, and action.

If you want to avoid becoming a “Congressional-style” leader, practice the opposite of what you see in Washington today. Prioritize service over self-interest, accountability over arrogance, and integrity over image.

The path to outstanding leadership is rarely the easiest one. But it is, without question, the right one.