I spent years thinking I was a good leader before I understood what kind of bad leader I was being.
Organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich found 95% of people believe they're self-aware. The number who meet the criteria? Around 10 to 15%. The rest are operating with blind spots they're not naming.
John Blakey is an executive coach and the author of Force for Good, a book about purpose-driven leadership. After years of working with CEOs, he landed on three leadership archetypes... three flavors of dysfunction. He calls them the Zealot, the Martyr, and the Pied Piper.
I've been all three.
The Framework
Blakey's model works across three dimensions of leadership:
- Up: Your connection to purpose. Why you lead. What you stand for.
- In: Your inner resilience. How you sustain yourself.
- Out: Your followership. Whether people are with you.
Each archetype hits two out of three and misses the third. The one you miss is your blind spot.
The Zealot
Zealots score high on "up" and "in." They have purpose. They have grit. They believe deeply in what they're doing and they have the stamina to pursue it relentlessly.
The "out" dimension is empty.
Blakey describes the Zealot as someone with "the passion and determination to pursue their calling, but they risk looking over their shoulders and finding nobody is following them because the intensity of their zeal is off-putting."
I was a Zealot early in my software career. I had strong opinions about architecture, about quality, about the right way to build things. I expressed those opinions loudly and often. I thought my conviction was leadership.
It wasn't. It was performance.
The people around me didn't follow my lead. They waited for me to stop talking. I'd leave a technical discussion feeling energized, like I'd done good work, while the room quietly decided to do something else entirely once I walked out.
Here's what nobody told me: being right about the work and being effective as a leader are two separate skills. The Zealot collapses them into one. You pour everything into your conviction and assume people will come along for the ride. Some do, briefly. Most find ways around you.
The Zealot's blind spot disguises itself as commitment. You're not wrong about the work. You're wrong about how you're showing up for the people doing it alongside you.
The Martyr
The Martyr scores high on "up" and "out." They have purpose, and people follow them for it. Teams love working for Martyrs because Martyrs genuinely care. They show up. They sacrifice. They take the calls no one else wants and they absorb the problems no one else is solving.
And then they burn out.
Blakey says Martyrs "serve the purpose and others with admirable diligence and loyalty but overlook their own needs."
When I moved into management, this was me. I said yes to everything. I absorbed the problems my team brought me because I thought absorbing them was my job. I worked weekends not because my company demanded it, but because I believed it was what good leaders did. I modeled exhausted, selfless service and called it dedication.
My team did follow me. They trusted me. They told me things they wouldn't tell anyone else. And when I eventually crashed... and I did crash, badly... the team felt every bit of it.
What I hadn't understood was that sustainability is not separate from leadership. It is leadership. Every time I stayed late unnecessarily, every time I said yes when I needed to say no, I was teaching my team how leaders behave. I was modeling a pattern I'd never want any of them to follow.
The Martyr's blind spot arrives wrapped in virtue. You're not neglecting people. You're neglecting yourself, which feels noble right up until the moment it becomes a crisis that takes everyone down with you.
The Pied Piper
The Pied Piper scores high on "in" and "out." They have personal resilience and people genuinely follow them. Teams want to be around them. They sustain their energy without burning out and they build real loyalty without trying hard.
But the "up" dimension is missing. There's no clear purpose underneath the charisma.
Blakey puts it plainly: Pied Pipers "lead their teams fantastically well and have no problem maintaining resilience... still, they lack a clear connection with their purpose."
I've seen Pied Pipers in the C-suite. Leaders who are personally magnetic, who run great meetings and build fiercely loyal teams. Their people would walk through walls for them. The trouble is the walls don't lead anywhere meaningful. The team works hard and moves fast in a direction nobody chose deliberately.
The Pied Piper's blind spot is the trickiest to name because all the leading indicators look fine. Engagement is high. People are energized. Retention is good. Nothing feels wrong until someone asks: what exactly are we doing this for?
At Step It Up HR, we work with organizations where the culture feels strong on the surface but the leadership lacks directional clarity. The Pied Piper type often shows up here. The problem isn't effort. It's not even talent. It's absence of a real why beneath the energy.
Which One Are You Right Now?
Be honest with yourself.
If your team respects your conviction but doesn't always follow your lead... you're likely a Zealot. The fix isn't less passion. It's more listening. Turn down the intensity in technical discussions and watch whether people actually engage or whether they go quiet and wait.
If people love working for you and you're running on empty... you're likely a Martyr. Your team is watching how you treat yourself. What you model, they learn. Start there.
If your team is loyal and energized but you'd struggle to explain the deeper "why" behind your current work... you're likely a Pied Piper. Purpose isn't a philosophical luxury. It's the thing driving your best decisions, including the hard ones. Without it, you're leading on borrowed time.
None of these archetypes is permanent. Naming your blind spot is most of the work.
The leaders who create the most damage are rarely the ones who don't care. They're the ones who care in the wrong direction... Zealots burning people with their certainty, Martyrs modeling unsustainability, Pied Pipers building loyal teams around an empty center.
A Question Worth Sitting With
Which dimension is weakest for you right now?
Not historically. Not in theory. Right now, in your current role, with your current team.
Is it "up"? Do you know why you lead?
Is it "in"? Are you taking care of the person doing the leading?
Is it "out"? Are people genuinely with you, or are they politely waiting?
Pick one. Work on it this week. You don't need to fix all three at once. You do need to start somewhere.
John Blakey's Force for Good is published by Kogan Page.