Banish the bane of a bad boss

If you’ve spent anytime in the workforce, you have a story about one: The bad boss. He micromanaged you so much you wondered why he just didn’t to your job along with his. Or she was so hands off and vague you had no idea what you were supposed to be doing until you landed in the hot seat because something didn’t get done. There are a million variations.
But as miserable as having a bad boss is, there’s something worse: coming to the painful realization that you are a bad boss.
How do you know for sure? Jim Stovall, president of the Narrative Television Network and author of “100 Worst Bosses” and the upcoming book “100 Worst Employees,” has some clues.
“You’re a bad boss if your people fear you instead of respecting you,” he said. “You’re a bad boss if you have no idea what your people do or what their individual goals might be. You’re a bad boss if you are protecting your territory and taking credit for all that your people do instead of shining the spotlight on them. You’re are a bad boss if you view your people as necessary evils instead of assets and colleagues.”
Starting to sound familiar? “People become bad bosses because they lose touch with the fact that they are there to serve the organization through the act of helping their people succeed,” he said. “When they get this equation out of balance, employees become insignificant and expendable in the minds of worst bosses.”
Phillip Wilson, president of the Broken Arrow, Okla.-based Labor Relations Institute and author of “The Next 52 Weeks: One Year to Transform Your Workplace” has some tests to find out if you’re a bad boss. “Test No. 1: You constantly feel like you are “out of the loop” and it makes you angry. This is evidence that you probably shoot the messenger (you start running out of messengers after a while...).”
Another test: “You fire a lot of people. This is evidence that you are either a terrible judge of talent or a terrible leader. Probably both. That’s not to say that every employee is perfect or that you should never fire someone, but if you have to do it very often, consider that you are probably the problem, not the employees.”
A bad boss is “any boss who is controlling and focused on themselves, rather than on building the strengths of the people in the company,” said Susan Kuczmaski, co-author, with her husband, Tom, of “Apples Are Square: Thinking Differently About Leadership.” The couple teaches a course called “New Leadership for an Innovative Edge” at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School. “Bad bosses will cause high turnover, and eventually lower profitability. The cost of people leaving the organization will eventually catch up with the bad boss.”
According to Stovall, it’s sometimes a tough message to get through. “Most bosses don’t get accurate or consistent feedback,” he said, “and this is especially true of the worst bosses. Due to fear and intimidation, rarely do these worst bosses hear the truth, so they do not realize how toxic the environment is that they create.”
How can you know for sure? “The most accurate feedback you will receive if you’re really seeking the truth is from employees who have left the organization or who have transferred to other departments,” Stovall explained “You will always get your most accurate measurement from the people who have the least to lose.”
“Few people have the ability to observe themselves, and even fewer can do so with brutal honesty,” said Sue Thompson, president of Wilmington, Del.-based Set Free Life Seminars. “Simply being willing to catch ourselves if we’ve been rude or impatient, or being able to hear the tone of our own voices, is enormously difficult. It takes real effort and watchfulness. Most people are blind and deaf to how they are perceived.”
And the truth often comes out one way or another. “It’s not usually too hard to figure out your employees hate you, or have no respect for you,” Thompson noted. “In many cases, there will be a major blunder that opens one’s eyes, such as the accidentally-printed out e-mail (or accidentally forwarded or cc’d) of how much you are despised and why.”
Dr. Dennis S. Reina president of the Stowe, Vt.-based Reina Trust Building Institute and co-author of “Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace: Building Effective Relationships in Your Organization” suggests you ask yourself questions such as: “Are you consistent in your behavior? Do you treat every employee fairly? Or do you pay favorites? Do you shun certain employees? Do you admit mistakes and take responsibility for them? Or, do you look for others to blame? Or do you belittle your employees when they make a mistake? Do you acknowledge people’s skills and abilities and allow them to do the jobs they are hired to do? Or do you micromanage them?”
Joining Bad Bosses Anonymous is not going to be easy. “Like any other change in life, the biggest and first step is to decide to change,” Stovall said. “Next, you have to become aware of the conscious and unconscious things you do that make you a bad boss. You need to start changing these little things. The change will not come quickly, but even the slightest alteration of your demeanor will be noticed.”
Of course, you also have the option to just stay in the land of denial and adopt the “my employees should just learn to deal with it” attitude.
“Is that rationale working for you? Really?” asked Thompson. “Someone should fire you. Unfortunately, this kind of attitude is the norm. Just expect turnover. People stay at a job because of their boss and they leave a job because of their boss. Bad ones don’t keep people unless there’s a compelling preventive, such as a terrible economy.”
Stovall agrees, and added that it may only be a short-term solution: “Leadership always comes with responsibility to those you lead. If you do not accept this responsibility, it is inevitable your position of leadership will be changed or you will be eliminated. Even if you survive and continue as a worst boss, your productivity, success and happiness will be a mere fraction of what they otherwise could be.”
According to Kuczmaski, “Good boss qualities — in particular collaboration and teamwork, relationship building and compassion, values-based decisiveness and inclusiveness — make people feel valued, increase their overall sense of significance and, in turn, directly influence productivity and bottom line profitability. It is just good business.”
 

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