The Clarity Letter

Bad Leadership Is Expensive (And Not In The Way You Think)

December 12, 2025 · 4 min read

Bad leadership does not always announce itself with dramatic headlines or public scandals. Most of the time, it shows up quietly, in places many people never name out loud:

• The slow leak of hope
• Shrinking confidence
• Team burnout
• Quiet frustration

People rarely call it what it is. They just feel it in their bodies, in their energy, in their fading sense of purpose.

Here is what makes it so expensive:

Bad leadership does not just hurt individuals. It drains everyone those individuals were meant to serve.

When a multiplier loses clarity, the people depending on them lose direction. When a leader burns out, the impact they were meant to create dies with them.

The financial cost shows up on spreadsheets. The real damage shows up in people.
It is emotional, relational, and collective.

This Week’s Insight

This is why the cost spreads.

Leadership is a transfer of clarity.

Whatever a leader carries inside, confusion or conviction, ego or humility, fear or purpose, spills onto everyone they influence.

And here is what most leaders do not realize:

What you depend on defines your capacity to serve.

When leaders build their security on:

• Approval
• Performance
• Pressure
• Validation
• Reputation

Everything becomes fragile.

Their clarity becomes fragile.
Their decisions become fragile.
Their influence becomes fragile.

And the people connected to them feel the tremors.

This week, as my sons turned 17 and 13, I was reminded that parenting is perhaps the most humbling leadership classroom there is. How my own clarity, or lack of it, shows up at home reveals exactly what I am building on, and whether that foundation can hold the weight of influence.

But clarity rooted in truth, identity, and purpose becomes something else entirely:

Steady.
Honest.
Strong enough to lift others.

Not because it is perfect, but because it is sourced in what never shifts.

This Week’s Reflection

Where have I felt the weight of unhealthy leadership in my own life?

Maybe it showed up as second guessing yourself, shrinking your voice, or questioning your worth because the room did not feel safe.

Maybe it looked like burnout that was not about the work itself, but about carrying more than your share of confusion, chaos, or emotional labor.

Now turn the lens toward yourself with honesty:

What am I building my security on?

• Someone else’s approval?
• Organizational stability?
• Market validation?
• Performance metrics?
• Others’ affirmation?

And what happens when those foundations shift?
Because they always do.

This Week’s Small Step

Identify one external foundation you have been depending on, and reconnect to what is steady.

Ask yourself:

• What have I been waiting for someone else to validate that I already know is true?
• Where have I been building my worth on performance instead of identity?
• What decision have I been delaying because I am afraid of losing approval?

You do not have to fix everything at once. Start with one reconnection, with yourself, with truth, with what never shifts.

Your clarity is not just for you. It is for the people who rise because you do.

I am grateful you are here, paying attention to what leadership is costing you, and what it can restore in you and others.

One clear step at a time.
Warmly,
Akima

AH-HA Moments
Because When Women See Clearly, They Lead Boldly.