{"id":3883,"date":"2015-08-20T05:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=3883"},"modified":"2021-06-10T14:39:03","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T19:39:03","slug":"10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chuck Lawless<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Several times in my teaching career, I\u2019ve asked graduate students to give me descriptions of the worst teachers they\u2019ve had. During those same years, I\u2019ve watched leaders, discussed leadership, and read leadership books to learn characteristics of good and bad leaders. Perhaps not surprisingly, I\u2019ve seen that some of the characteristics of bad teachers and bad leaders are the same.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They don\u2019t communicate well<\/strong>. Sometimes they just don\u2019t <\/em>communicate; they expect others to read their mind and meet their unstated expectations. At other times, they are simply boring when they do try to communicate.<\/li>\n
  2. They make others feel dumb<\/strong>. They don\u2019t miss many opportunities to point out when others are wrong. Nor do they miss a chance to show others how much they know. Eventually, no one speaks up around them \u2013 and the worst teachers and leaders are too unaware to recognize they are often the problem.<\/li>\n
  3. They\u2019re disorganized<\/strong>. Maybe they\u2019re just so busy that it\u2019s hard to stay on top of everything, or maybe they\u2019re just plain disorganized. Either way, they usually can\u2019t figure out why others struggle with following their unclear \u2013 and often changing \u2013 directions.<\/li>\n
  4. They\u2019re disconnected<\/strong>. Many are the students and staff members who are frustrated by teachers and leaders who are nowhere to be found. When the teacher or leader fails to build relationships, those he teaches or leads become means to an end \u2013 not people created in the image of God.<\/li>\n
  5. They\u2019re lazy<\/strong>. It\u2019s clear from their lack of passion that they lost their focus and energy years ago. They know nothing new, and their teaching\/leading has not changed in decades. They may think others don\u2019t realize they\u2019re just \u201cgoing through the motions,\u201d but they\u2019re kidding no one.<\/li>\n
  6. They are arrogant<\/strong>. You know what this trait looks like, even in Christian organizations. These teachers and leaders always talk about themselves. Any sense of humility seems to be forced; in fact, others see it as only another way to point out how good they are.<\/li>\n
  7. They\u2019re critical<\/strong>. Not only do they criticize others, but even more importantly, they almost never praise others. The only time you hear from them is when they want to correct something.<\/li>\n
  8. They don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about<\/strong>. Some teachers don\u2019t know their material well, and some leaders don\u2019t know their field well. In some cases, both have been given their positions for some reason other than their know-how \u2013 and it\u2019s obvious.<\/li>\n
  9. They don\u2019t enjoy their work<\/strong>. People who spend time with them learn quickly that they have no joy in their day-to-day tasks. Their smiles are forced and their laughter is infrequent.<\/li>\n
  10. Their Christian walk is debatable<\/strong>. That is, some who know them best question the depth of their walk with God \u2013 primarily because the leaders they are in public are not always the people they are in private. Needless to say, this problem is, among all these listed here, the most serious one for Christian teachers and leaders.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Recognizing that all of us probably show some of these characteristics at times, what other characteristics would you add to this list?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Be sure to check out Dr. Lawless\u2019 daily blog posts at www.chucklawless.com<\/a>. Chuck Lawless<\/a> currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary<\/a>.\u00a0You can connect with Dr. Lawless on both\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several times in my teaching career, I\u2019ve asked graduate students to give me descriptions of the worst teachers they\u2019ve had. During those same years, I\u2019ve watched leaders, discussed leadership, and read leadership books to learn characteristics of good and bad leaders. Perhaps not surprisingly, I\u2019ve seen that some of the characteristics of bad teachers and bad leaders are the same.","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":747502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've seen that some of the characteristics of bad teachers and bad leaders are the same.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I've seen that some of the characteristics of bad teachers and bad leaders are the same.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-20T10:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-10T19:39:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chuck Lawless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chuck Lawless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chuck Lawless\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\"},\"headline\":\"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-20T10:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-10T19:39:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/\"},\"wordCount\":590,\"commentCount\":30,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Church Answers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/\",\"name\":\"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-20T10:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-10T19:39:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\"},\"description\":\"I've seen that some of the characteristics of bad teachers and bad leaders are the same.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1152},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\",\"name\":\"Church Answers\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\",\"name\":\"Chuck Lawless\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chuck Lawless\"},\"description\":\"Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/clawless\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders","description":"I've seen that some of the characteristics of bad teachers and bad leaders are the same.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders","og_description":"I've seen that some of the characteristics of bad teachers and bad leaders are the same.","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2015-08-20T10:00:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-10T19:39:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2048,"height":1152,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Chuck Lawless","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chuck Lawless","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/"},"author":{"name":"Chuck Lawless","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f"},"headline":"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders","datePublished":"2015-08-20T10:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-10T19:39:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/"},"wordCount":590,"commentCount":30,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png","articleSection":["Church Answers"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/","name":"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png","datePublished":"2015-08-20T10:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-10T19:39:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f"},"description":"I've seen that some of the characteristics of bad teachers and bad leaders are the same.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/No-6.png","width":2048,"height":1152},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-descriptors-of-bad-teachers-and-bad-leaders\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10 Descriptors of Bad Teachers and Bad Leaders"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f","name":"Chuck Lawless","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chuck Lawless"},"description":"Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/clawless\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":747503,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883\/revisions\/747503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}