When Leadership Fails: A Case Study in Collapse and Complicity

Leadership doesn’t reveal itself in job titles or vision statements. You see it-really see it-when things get uncomfortable. When ego’s on the line. When integrity gets inconvenient. When staying silent is safer.

This isn’t a grievance. It’s a case study.

Of how promising organisations come undone - not through funding cuts or outside politics, but from within. From the absence of courage. Of clarity. Of leadership where it’s most needed.

And how, too often, no one inside is willing to stop it.

The Build: What We Tried to Make

I joined at the beginning, back when the whole thing was just an idea passed around in hopeful meetings. No systems. No structure. Just potential.

Over three years, I helped turn that potential into something real. Strategy turned into operations. A scattered idea became a flagship programme-one of the most effective in the region. Not because of luck. Because we built it, carefully, together.

But as the organisation grew, its leadership didn’t.

And the gap between what we were building - and how we were being led - became impossible to ignore.

Control in the Place of Leadership

When we needed direction, we got disruption.

Projects were launched and scrapped overnight. Staff were sidelined for asking questions. Infrastructure work — including database and CRM systems — was repeatedly derailed by interference and a refusal to engage with expertise.

One respected external lead stepped away — not due to delivery issues, but because the working relationship with the Chair had become untenable. Passive resistance, undermining, aggression and point-scoring had replaced any pretence of collaboration.

Internally, scoped and documented work was ignored. Trust eroded. Clarity vanished.

And with no one willing to step in, accountability gave way to narrative — one that protected image over evidence.

When Governance Is a Shield

The damage didn’t stem from one individual’s misconduct alone — or even the repeated conflicts of interest and misuse of power. It came from a system designed to absorb it, excuse it, and carry on unchanged.

Rather than commissioning an independent review, the board delegated the investigation to the Chair — asking her to examine her own decisions, her own actions. The outcome was, unsurprisingly, aligned with her version of events.

Key documents never reached the hearing. Allegations were reframed. The terms of reference kept shifting, rendering any response obsolete before it was given. At one point, a panel member told me directly:

“We’re not concerned with what you were instructed to do. We’re looking at the outcome.”

That wasn’t governance. It was narrative management.

Why I Left

Eventually, it became clear: staying meant becoming part of the problem.

So I left.

Not because I couldn’t handle pressure - I’ve worked through far worse.

I left because the rot wasn’t peripheral. It was structural.

The organisation had a clear moment to choose accountability. It chose self-preservation.

The Chair had multiple chances to step in. To model what leadership should look like.

The board had more than enough feedback - and red flags - to act. Instead, they walked away from the organisation’s core ethos.

A formal email landed - contradictory, offensive, and oddly self-assured. I passed it to a friend, a seasoned union rep, someone who’s seen every trick in the book.

They read it, paused, then said:

“They’ve told on themselves in writing.”

Not just an attempt to control the narrative - a signed confession disguised as official correspondence. They didn’t bury the truth. They wrapped it in policy language, stamped it, and called it governance.

For the Record

The Chair acted beyond her remit.

Staff concerns were dismissed.

Governance mechanisms were bypassed - even when I flagged the risks, explicitly, to protect them.

Even amid personal betrayal, I was still trying to uphold the very principles the organisation claimed to stand for — principles I’d helped shape from the beginning.

The board didn’t just allow this. It enabled it.

Why This Isn’t Just My Story

This isn’t an exposé. It’s a pattern, one many will recognise.

Because this doesn’t just happen here. It happens anywhere courage is absent and convenience is king.

What Boards Should Know

• Leadership is not ownership. It’s responsibility.

• Silence is not neutrality. It’s permission.

• Culture is not declared. It’s revealed—by who is protected, and who is punished.

• Governance that shields misconduct isn’t failing. It’s working as designed.

For Anyone Living Through It

Document everything. Stay grounded. Trust your gut.

Know when to speak — and when silence starts to cost you more.

Leaving isn’t weakness. It’s clarity.

Sometimes, it’s the strongest thing you’ll do.

#LeadershipMatters ##WorkplaceCulture #Resilience #Burnout #ToxicLeadership

#Clackmannanshire #employability

Clackmannanshire Economic Regeneration Trust