I loved the comparison of the vortex and drain style of leadership, Paul. It got me thinking of real life examples and then, I found one from way back in the late 90s when I worked for a Vortex Leader. The ambiance in the office was wonderful and even though ours was a high pressure work environment, everyone was happy. We met our targets and there was a lot of goal achievement going on both for the company and the individual staff members.

Then the boss changed. Vortex Leader had a difference with the owner and left. He was replaced with a very competent boss but things changed for all of us. The motivation and inspiration was replaced with fear of not reaching targets and the works. The new boss was a nice human being but looking back at the time and with 20-20 vision hindsight, I think he qualifies as the Vortex Leader. Quite a few professionals left and while the company did go from strength to strength, I doubt the workforce morale was ever the same. Thank you for the insight.