Rebel Leader Lab
Rebel Leader Lab™AI-powered. Human-centered.
Book a discovery call
The Book · Coming October 27, 2026

Bad Bosses

The leadership failures we keep promoting — and how to stop.

Every organization has them. Most organizations made them. An unsentimental look at how companies systematically produce the leaders they later complain about — and a practical case for building the opposite.

OUT OCTOBER 27, 2026
Pre-order the book now →

Available on Kindle now. Print edition ships October 27, 2026.

Bad Bosses by Sheila Joy Vance, MBA — hot-pink paperback cover shown closed and open to the introduction, titled 'Managing Up and Protecting Your Sanity from Toxic Leadership'
Inside the Book

Every organization has them. Most organizations made them.

Bad bosses are not an accident of hiring. They are the predictable output of systems that promote the wrong behavior, reward the wrong results, and then act surprised when good people leave.

Bad Bosses is an unsentimental look at how organizations systematically produce the leaders they later complain about — and a practical case for building the opposite. Drawn from fifteen years inside leadership development, 125+ leaders developed, and research into what people actually trust.

You cannot fix leadership one manager at a time. You have to fix what you keep promoting.

Bad Bosses front cover — bold black type on hot pink, by Sheila Joy Vance, MBA
The Four We Keep Promoting

Everyone can name them. Almost no organization stops making them.

TYPE 01

The Micromanager

Trust replaced by surveillance — and the slow erosion of everyone's judgment but their own.

TYPE 02

The Ghost

Absent when it matters. Decisions stall, and somehow that becomes the team's problem.

TYPE 03

The Blamer

Failure flows downhill. Accountability is something that happens to other people.

TYPE 04

The Credit Stealer

Your work, their name, their promotion. Repeat until people stop raising their hands.

What the Book Argues

Stop treating bad leadership as bad luck.

01

How organizations manufacture the bosses they later complain about

02

What promotion criteria reward — and what they quietly destroy

03

The measurable cost of leadership people cannot trust

04

A practical case for building the opposite

Pre-order Now

Out October 27, 2026.

The first 50 pre-orders get a signed copy. Reserve yours before launch day.

Pre-order the book now →