A leader can only be positive about his followers

Humans err! People do mistakes - no matter what their capacity, level of intelligence, and knowledge are. When they commit mistakes, it is the prime responsibility of the leader to teach them, may it be numerous times, to follow the right path. Here is an example that I would like to share that enunciates this fact.

A few weeks ago my super-boss (Mr.X) sent an email asking us not to throw any thing in the trash-can (dust bin) that sits under the coffee-pot except coffee ground, stirrers, and coffee wrappers. Of course his email said what to put in the trash can, but did not say what NOT to put in it. Even though coffee-cups were not among those that can be put in the trash-can, some coffee-cups were seen in it the very next day. People continued to throw the cups even for a few days, when Mr.X decided to send a follow-up email.

He described what he intended to see in the trash-can. However, he did not mention what he does not want to see in the trash can. He bolded few statetments about his concerns and uttered few sarcastic statements about people who are still using the trash can for coffee cups. Nevertheless, he failed to CLARIFY what SHOULD GO into the trash can.

Now, there may be couple of reasons why people continue to use the trash can for coffee cups:
1) They might have disregarded the email the first time, and did not read the email completely the second time (I would'nt blame them, for the email's focus was different - what to throw)
2) People might have misunderstood the email (remember, this is about COFFEE cups, and one would easily think that they would go into trash can under the COFFEE pot, unless specifically pointed).

Anyways, at least that is my understanding as I saw few more coffee cups in the trash-can the following days after the second email. I would have expected Mr.X to send a third email, describing WHAT SHOULD NOT go into the trash.

Instead, he started making derogatory comments (comments such as idiots, ignorant, etc, etc)about his own employees while conversing with people like me, who are not ardent coffee lovers (and thus less likely to be the culprits).

In my opinion, his comments are not called-for, and only make him low-key in the eyes of his employees (at least for me). Instead, he should have been persistent in his teachings and get his employess do what he intends them to do.

Anyways, I thought this is an interesting incident because I am looking at this from an employee's perspective (see, making frivoulous commens about my peers certainly raised my eye brows even though those are from Mr.X - the super-boss). I cannot foresee what my reaction would be if I were to be in my employer's shoes. But, the answer lies with time, when I would be owning my own company and leading a group of people. Let us see how I react then. Until then, "leader is a leader is a leader - and he should be positive about his followers".