Nobody starts out to be a lousy boss
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I was having a chat yesterday with Shaun Kieran. Shaun is a bright and thoughtful guy who has been a very good coach for a very long time.
Shaun mentioned that when something bad happens in the workplace, it usually isn't because someone set out to do the wrong thing. That's true for bad bosses in general. Nobody sets out to be one.
I can't imagine someone getting up in the morning, leaping out of bed and saying, "I'm going to be the worst boss in North America today and have a great time doing it!"
You don't become a bad boss all at once. You earn the appellation through a series of actions. One at a time, they build a reputation. So why do bosses make those bad choices?
Sometimes the boss thinks that he or she is making the best choice among the available alternatives.
Sometimes the boss thinks he or she has no choice.
Sometimes the boss is hooked emotionally by a situation and responds without actually thinking much at all.
We can prevent some of that from happening. We can provide training in supervisory skills when people start doing leadership work. That training should include identifying good role models, understanding the job of a boss, and identifying sources of support.
We can understand that transitioning from individual contributor to boss is a year to eighteen month process during which the new boss needs lots of coaching and support. Special "transition mentors" who understand the process can be "Spirit Guides" to the transition.
Once the transition period is done, good systems of 360 degree appraisal can help. But they have to be combined with peer support. Some very effective peer support can happen using simple sharing software like wikis. Mentors and coaches can help, too.
Sometimes nothing works. Sometimes we promote the wrong people. Promoting people is not a science and even good, experienced managers get it wrong from time to time. But if we promote conscientiously, provide training and support as well as feedback and coaching, there's no reason why someone who's willing to work at it can't do a good job of being a boss.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.
Request your free copy of "Meeting the Challenges of the Boomer Brain Drain: An integrated approach."
Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.
Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.
For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.
Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.
Many managers fear that their subordinates will learn how inadequate they feel in their jobs. Although hiding vulnerabilities is hardly new, this concern has been exacerbated by a new fear of either becoming obsolete or technology-driven toast in a world of business transformation. "I've never seen businesspeople have to fake it more," says B. Joseph White, past business school dean and interim president at the University of Michigan and now president of the University of Illinois.
Four out of ten newly promoted managers and executives fail within 18 months of starting new jobs, according to research by Manchester, Inc, a leadership development firm in Bala Cynwyd, PA. "Failing" includes being terminated for performance, performing significantly below expectations or voluntarily resigning from the new position.
Managers often fail for a few common reasons: due to unclear or outsized expectations, a failure to build partnerships with key stakeholders, a failure to learn the company, industry or the job itself fast enough, a failure to determine the process for gaining commitments from direct reports and a failure to recognize and manage the impact of change on people.
Those all-to-common poor managers create plenty of problems for companies as well as leading to poor morale, less production and higher turnover.
FSU Survey Sites Worst Boss Offenses
Nearly two of five bosses don't keep their word and more than a fourth bad mouth those they supervise to co-workers, a Florida State University (FSU) study shows. The FSU survey included more than 700 people working in a variety of jobs and asked how their bosses treat them.
"They say that employees don't leave their job or company, they leave their boss," says Wayne Hochwarter, an associate professor of management in the College of Business at FSU. Employees stuck in an abusive relationship experienced more exhaustion, job tension, nervousness, depressed moods and mistrust, the researchers found. The findings include:
39 percent of workers said their supervisor failed to keep promises
37 percent failed to give credit when due
31 percent gave them the "silent treatment" in the past year
27 percent made negative comments about them to other employees or managers
24 percent invaded their privacy
Workers in bad situations should remain optimistic, Hochwarter said.
Keep doing your job in the best way possible while being tolerant of your boss...who may be trying to learn how to best manage you and others. If your boss has been recently promoted or recruited, you can expect that he or she will be incompetent for the first 9 to 12 months in the new position.
Source: Brent Kallestad, The Associated Press
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