A Letter To Bad Bosses

Are you a bad boss? You know who you are – you are probably just in denial about it or worse…. you know you are and frankly, don’t care.

Here’s some advice - Cut it out. Seriously, cut it out. It’s costing you time and money.

Now this seems like common sense but it seems to me lately that there has been a spike in the bad boss industry and it’s not cool and before you get all defensive, there is a difference between TOUGH and BAD. I’m a fan of tough bosses, you will learn the most from them.

So, I’m not sure at what point these bosses forgot that a LARGE part of their job is mentoring and inspiring their staff to do their job well – but they did and it is really frustrating to hear over and over again.

Why should you care? For the simple reason, you will not accomplish your business and personal goals if you don’t have a loyal staff.

Here are some quick refreshers for all bosses:

• You have a responsibility to your team.
• They look up to you.
• They look to you for guidance.
• They need to know that you have their back and that you will provide them with constructive criticism when needed and depend on you for sharing your own growing experience with them.
• You are showing them how a great boss operates.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you need to be their best friend and go all soft. There is a fine line here, but recently I’ve seen a dramatic uptick in the “all about me” curve with these bad bosses.  They manage up well… I’ll leave it at that.

So who are these people?

The Fake Listener: This boss is great, because they are super nice, get along great with everyone (team members, colleagues and ESPECIALLY senior management). Downfall – they don’t do anything with the information and there is no follow up.

The Credit Monger: Doesn’t need much explanation – you do the work, I’ll take the credit and give you none.

The “You know better than to come talk to me” Manager: You have a project dilemma. You have analyzed and implemented all possible solutions to the best of your abilities but you fear you have missed an option. Natural solution would be to discuss options with your boss and see if there is anything else you might be missing. But no, you can’t do this because they make you feel like a piece of crap when you do. So you don’t based on fear. You convince yourself it is better to potentially fail than put yourself in the dreaded “belittler machine.”

There are many other types that are out there (and combo packs too) but I can’t get into all of those personality types…

My point here is that I’m not saying that you have to be the nicest person on earth. Find the balance - I’m a huge believer in understanding who your team is, what skills they bring to the table (you hired them - at least most of the time) and acknowledge that they are all different.

Figure out their strengths and help them through their weaknesses in a positive way. 

Don’t have the time? Make it.

That’s what you get paid for. If you can’t do it, hire someone that will. This is a key part of your success otherwise you will lose people year after year.

Again, I repeat - this is a part of your job.

A very important part of your job that will define your success outside of the walls of your company. Remember, managing up is no longer an easy out to not managing down well. With the social networks, word gets out – it will affect your recruiting, your street cred and it will eventually catch up with you when the time comes for you to look for a job.

Now, playing the fair card here - Some folks just aren’t made to work for each other and that is something that both of you need to figure out for yourselves but that is also part of being a good boss - address it. But before you point the finger at your team member or use the “that’s just the nature of the business” excuse, take a look at yourself and be honest. Have you been a fair boss? Have you set accurate and clear expectations?

For those folks that are struggling and do need to keep their jobs until they can find something else, I came across this link on tips for managing your bad boss.

Again, this goes for both ends and it takes both parties to meet half way.  I just really wanted to comment on what I’ve been seeing and hearing lately and it seems like a simple win that is being ignored in company retention and loyalty and perhaps folks need to be reminded. 

On a personal note, I did not write this because I have a bad boss. In fact, I’m on the opposite spectrum which is why I felt compelled to write this. The bosses that I have had, truly guided me with their experience and mentored me well, even the tough ones.

Still not sure if you are a bad boss?

Take a look at your retention rate and talk to your people… you will find your answer pretty quickly.

Here’s hoping for a downtick in the bad boss curve in 2012 and uptick in retention!

For more fun reading:

Lessons from Nightmare Bosses

Bad Boss Cartoons

or just google bad bosses :)

Building A Great Team

Does it make sense to turn a team member into boss?

My answer is that it depends on a number of things including the needs of the team, needs of the organization and business and personality amongst many other factors. 

The most important factor though: can this person really manage and inspire the team to do great work?

This can be a polarizing topic but I think it's worth bringing up and discussing. Recently Hank Gilman, deputy manager editor of Fortune wrote a book, You Can't Fire Everyone: And Other Lessons from an Accidental Manager." He wrote it specifically geared at younger managers given that the average age of management is skewing younger and younger these days.

In this book, he talks about how plenty of managers are never asked or expected to be put in charge of other people. But when it happens, these accidental managers find that learning to manage is akin to learning to swim by being dropped in the deep end of the pool.

There are two parts to becoming a manager: managing down and managing up. This post of mine will focus more on the managing down part. I'll save the managing up part for another day :)

Some people have it innately within them to be a team leader, others need a little coaching and mentorship and others, well others simply should not become managers and hopefully senior managers have the insight to understand when to make that call. Unfortunately more often than not, they make the wrong call.

Seven years ago I was one of those managers who never asked to be put in charge of people. Fortunately, I had many years of working for the best and worst bosses, so along the way I would tuck away all those experience nuggets of "I would never treat my people like that" and "wow what an inspiration to make me work harder"and was able to pull them out when the opportunity or should I say mandate was handed down to lead a team.

In my eyes it boiled down to something I learned back in first grade:
Treat people the way you would want to be treated.
BUT remember, you are their leader, their manager, NOT their BFF.

This is a line very easy to cross when you are first put in this position, especially if you have come up through the ranks and suddenly your colleagues are your direct reports. The dynamic changes instantly for you and for them.

Respect that change. If you try to be both, you will get in a lot of trouble and no one is happy.

But coming back to my point of treating people the way you would want to be treated. I think this simple statement can help you manage and make the right decisions, as difficult as they may be.  I was fortunate to inherit a wonderful and talented team, this made it very easy for me to do the right thing and I soon realized my challenge wouldn't be so much about managing the team as much as it would be to understanding the political landscape of senior management, managing up and how to get my team what they needed without steamrolling sr. management with an extensive list of needs.

So how did I do it?

The first feeling I experienced was crap, how the hell am I going to do everything. I need to show senior management that I can manage and I need to show the team that I can be a leader to them. Baby steps was the answer.

Communication
Feeling overwhelmed is human but you need to take baby steps. My first course of action was to talk to the team individually. This is huge. I cannot underscore the importance of communication.

It will make or break you as a manager.

Sure it may be harder depending upon the size of the team but it's important as a new manager, so take the time somehow to establish that one on one contact at some point. Remember, this is just as new to them as it is to you. This one on one will unearth things you never thought about, good and bad. You will get a deeper understanding of their goals, expectations, personality, all which will later inform you on how you what your team looks like from a skills and personality perspective.

For each team member, the fact that you sat down and listened to them will be big in their books. You took the time and that counts for something.

Take Action
Now here's the really important part. You need to do something with what you have learned and you need to communicate back to them what YOUR plan is.  More often than not, managers will actually take the time to listen but there is no follow up. The more this happens, the more your credibility is shot.

So even if it is just a quick email to follow up that you have reached out to someone to inquire, that makes a difference. Remember that part of taking action is also continuing to regularly meeting with individuals and checking in, it's not just something you do on day one. Another common management mistake that can be easily remedied.

Prioritize
Now obviously, it will be impossible to satisfy each and every need but that's where your role as a manager comes in. You have a running list of needs and now it is time to prioritize them. There is no way that everything can or should be addressed right at the beginning. This will help you plan and also communicate to sr. management that you have set goals that they can then help you achieve.

Remember your job as a manager is to keep your team motivated and staffed on projects amongst many other things. Keeping them motivated though will inspire them to do great work and ultimately make the department look good.

So motivate them by hearing them out, addressing their needs when possible and communicating next steps. Makes sense right? Not brain surgery by any means but these simple things are more often than not forgotten in the shuffle of "just get the work done."

So for all the senior managers trying to figure out whether or not they should promote internally or hire externally There are a number of factors to consider but  I would challenge them to go through these points and ask, will they be able to do these things? I think your answers will lead you to the most sensible answer.