“Bad bosses” continue to get a lot of press. In my world of training, developing, and coaching managers over the past twenty years, I have yet to meet a manager who wakes up in the morning and consciously says, “Today I am going to be a bad boss; I am going to do my best to totally screw up the lives of the people who work for me.” Yet, there are definitely really bad bosses in the work world. So how exactly does that happen?
I think there are two major reasons why managers descend into that “bad boss” abyss.
The first culprit is a lack of self-awareness. Bad managers are generally clueless about how their style and way of providing work direction impacts those who report to them. And if they do possess some level of self-awareness, they are often unwilling to flex or adapt their style to more effectively connect with others.
Second, most bad bosses suffer from the “it’s all about me syndrome”. What they fail to realize is that the role of a manager at any level is to get work done through others. Great managers realize that it is all about the people who report to them and those managers do everything they can to provide a work environment where their direct reports can be as effective as possible.
And organizations can also be guilty of contributing to the bad manager phenomenon. There are still organizations that promote the top individual contributors into management roles and fail to recognize that being a great manager requires very different competencies then being a great individual contributor. This practice can have a double negative impact. First, it takes a great individual contributor and puts him or her in a role for which they are ill-suited. Second, if that person turns out to be a bad manager, it diminishes the effectiveness of the direct reports that have to deal with that person on a daily basis.
Why do Managers Get Derailed?
I think there are two major reasons why managers descend into that “bad boss” abyss.
The first culprit is a lack of self-awareness. Bad managers are generally clueless about how their style and way of providing work direction impacts those who report to them. And if they do possess some level of self-awareness, they are often unwilling to flex or adapt their style to more effectively connect with others.
Second, most bad bosses suffer from the “it’s all about me syndrome”. What they fail to realize is that the role of a manager at any level is to get work done through others. Great managers realize that it is all about the people who report to them and those managers do everything they can to provide a work environment where their direct reports can be as effective as possible.
And organizations can also be guilty of contributing to the bad manager phenomenon. There are still organizations that promote the top individual contributors into management roles and fail to recognize that being a great manager requires very different competencies then being a great individual contributor. This practice can have a double negative impact. First, it takes a great individual contributor and puts him or her in a role for which they are ill-suited. Second, if that person turns out to be a bad manager, it diminishes the effectiveness of the direct reports that have to deal with that person on a daily basis.