Bad supervisors are bad for you
 Subscribe to the Three Star Leadership Blog |
| The 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. |
| For weekly tips and resources pointers, check Wally's Three Star Leadership Letter |
| Request your free copy of Wally's Special Report: Managing Headcount in a Downturn. |
| Find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention. |
| Find out more about Wally's coaching services. |
 |
Want another reason to improve the quality of your supervision? Read the story on the SkyNews web site headlined: "A bad boss can make you ill." Here's the lead.
"Managers with poor leadership skills and whose staff consider them to be bad at their jobs have a knock-on effect on staff health levels, the study by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found. The study looked into the health of more than 3,000 working men with an average age of 42 over a 10-year period and found a strong link between the quality of leadership and the employees' health."
This shouldn't be surprising. We know that your boss affects your productivity and morale. Why not your health as well?
The solutions are simple enough. They're just not easy.
Help your current supervisors do better. Most of them aren't doing a toxic job because they want to be the worst boss on the planet. There are three possible situations.
Your supervisors may not know how to do the job you want. Get them some training. Provide coaching and peer support. Make sure they understand that supervision is the most important part of their job.
Your supervisors may not have the resources to do a good job. Usually that boils down to a lack of time. And, also usually, it's because upper management has the supervisors doing things that suck up time but don't contribute to productivity or morale.
Get them the resources they need. Stop having them do things that don't help.
The third situation is that you will have some supervisors who can't or won't learn how to do the job right. They need to be replaced.
Then start promoting people who have the possibility of succeeding. Pick people who like helping others succeed. Pick people who are willing to let the performance of others determine their destiny. Pick people who are willing to talk to others about behavior and performance.
Give those people training and support. Help them succeed. Then you'll have good supervisors in place.
Productivity and morale will go up. And, just maybe, health care costs will go down.
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 Wally's Special Report: Managing Headcount in a Downturn.
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.
Wally - Good show! It was only 3 days into my 45 years out there when I learned something you don't touch upon: Those who criticize are often not able to do the job they are criticizing. Criticizing is easy. Doing is not. Also, how about the research that shows that the most disgruntled employees are more often than not the least competent?
Reply to this
Thanks for the link to the study Wally. It never ceases to amaze me how many bad bosses there are out there. But the really crazy things is that being a good boss is not only fairly simple, it also delivers consistently better results.
Reply to this
Fascinating and it makes perfect sense. I am sure that there is a direct connection as well to having a bad boss and the rate of divorce. Stress is a terrible thing.
Reply to this
I used to be more amazed than I am now at the longevity that some truly bad managers achieve.
I remember grinding my teeth 20 years ago as I sat listening to the Q & A after our semi-celebrity Hospital Director had finished his little speech to the Chamber breakfast. He talked about being the kind of administrator who hired good people, then “let them do their jobs.”
Which was why the MBA who ran the billing department, and his main squeeze, the Director of Nursing, were entering their third year as the feared and despised tag team responsible for the massive personnel turnover, the high number of “near disasters,” but also the certification with “flying colors” from JCAH.
Some jobs are about executing the “vision” of the guys on top who are out of the building most of the time. They don’t really want to know how it gets done. They’d honestly be shocked to hear the truth about the actual carnage.
What's amazing is how powerful the desire to not be a whiner, combined with fear of retribution, adds up to so little ever being said.
I actually sympathize with managers who step into rough workplaces and try to be good people. I posted about it here: http://springpointservices.com/blog/managing-and-p…t-but-the-samemanaging-and-parenting-different-but-the-same/.
Too many managers have bosses who simply want the parts to work, don’t want to hear bad news, so they support and retain underlings who manage to keep pulling it off.
Thanks for tracking down the stuff worth looking at, Wally.
Shaun
Reply to this
Thanks for sharing that, Shaun. The toxic managers only succeed if all that matters is accomplishing the mission. But the best leaders strive to accomplish the mission and care for their people.
You say:
"I actually sympathize with managers who step into rough workplaces and try to be good people."
My experience is that those people often fall off the other side of the horse. They're so intent on caring for the people that they never get around to accomplishing the mission.
It's a hard road, but a rewarding one.
Thanks for sharing your perspective and adding to the discussion.
Reply to this
This is so true my friend .. a good leader leads to perfection of team and if we have a bad boss or supervisior as you said than it can be very bad for our work!
Reply to this
Takis said: a good leader leads to perfection of team
I totally agree!
Reply to this