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"hub and spoke" leadershipI will have to remember that phrase. I once worked for someone like that. It was awful.
• The leader was the sole and absolute authority on everything the team did.
• If a team member came up with an idea of our own, we were not allowed to write a ticket to open it up for discussion. We were expected to have a private discussion with the leader first, and they would decide if it was worth pursuing.
• Heaven help you if you ever wrote a balanced comment citing the pros and cons of any particular approach to a problem. The leader would quote you out of context in a team meeting, reading aloud only the parts of your comment that supported their position.
• Secrecy was important. For major new projects, the leader would convene a private working group with hand-picked team members who would follow their lead, excluding anyone with more experience who might have insights or even disagreement on the development approach.
• If you ever made a mistake that caused problems in production, you would get called out for it in front of the team. If the leader made a mistake and you tried to respectfully help shore up the problem, they would dig in their heels and argue against your fix. The leader does not make mistakes.
• In that latter case where the leader made a mistake that caused problems in production, they would never acknowledge it or apologize for it. Apologies are a sign of weakness.
Never going back there again.