In case my readers haven’t figured it out, I have a problem with authority, more specifically, with the leadership styles people use. Most of the time, these people are not using the appropriate type of leadership a situation demands. The best way to destroy the morale of an office or department is the incorrect implementation of authority. While there is no universally accepted style of leadership, there is definitely a widely despised style of leadership: The Know It All.

I am a firm believer that leaders should have a fundamental knowledge of the areas they oversee. They don’t need to know all the granular details of a specific role. That is for the person in that position to handle. I am puzzled as to why some leaders believe that they know better than the people who do the tasks. To me, there is nothing worse than a leader holding this level of delusion inside their collapsing skull.

When I was in the service, I went through seven butter bars (2nd lieutenants) during my enlistment. One of the things they had to participate in was a week-long course called “Lightning Hawk University,” which provided overviews of all the communication equipment their units possessed. When they finished this week of basic introduction, they returned to their post with enough information to be dangerous, and definitely not helpful. It took seventeen weeks to learn the basics of my job, yet these people supposedly learned it all in a day. I know they graduated from college, but that doesn’t mean they comprehend everything.

Whenever we were out in a field exercise, these excitable pups would come to us asking why shots were down or other status issues. When we would provide information, it was never good enough. Then, they would offer their “insight” as to what the problem was. I did my best to ignore these butter bars, but sometimes they did grate on my last good nerve. Yes, you graduated from college. That does not mean you have mastered all of humanity’s greatest inventions.

The worst butter bar I had was this self-righteous jerk who thought he knew better than us about the equipment we maintained. He would frequently inform us that we were not performing things according to procedure. What this bundle of fun didn’t realize was that the equipment does not always work according to specifications, so correcting us isn’t helping the matter. It only makes us feel worse. Furthermore, Officer Twit had his degree in culinary arts. What can this man specifically do to help us remedy our shaky signal status, make cheesecake?

It never ceases to amaze me when I see members of the administration looking over the shoulders of the people hired to do a job, correcting each discrepancy. That isn’t leadership. That is prime jackassery. Whatever happened to the leaders who entrusted their subordinates to do their job without getting into their business? When people take this tactical approach, all they are doing is putting the “dic” in dictator. Stop it. Some of us have actual work to do.