Posted on Fri, Mar 26, 2010 @ 09:10 AM
Alright. So after our little break from the bad bosses blog series to go over some of the finer ways to deal with March Madness in your office, we bring to you today the final posting in the bad bosses blog series. The first post in the series got some very heavy exposure in the blogosphere community. Make sure you check that out along with the rest. Here are links to the first three in case you missed them.
How to Deal With Poor Management - Part 1
How to Deal With Poor Management - Part 2
How to Deal With Poor Management - Part 3
So without further adieu, here is the final post in the beating bad bosses blog series, courtesy of IntegrityHR.
So, what do you do if you are unfortunate enough to have a bad boss? It's a difficult situation, and one that you need to assess thoroughly before taking any action. However, here's the best advice that we can provide to you. The first three topics covered all the different types of bad bosses, in (we admit) quite a bit of detail. The last post is your Top 7 Tips on How to Deal With Poor Management.
1. Document accurately
Write down issues that are affecting you and your ability to meet your goals in the workplace. Be prepared to present them in a diplomatic, practical way. That is, while your feelings are important, don't rely only on hurt feelings as being the problem. You need to be able to show that the manager's behavior is negatively impacting the performance of the workplace. Also, don't accuse the manager of being one way or another - simply state the facts and how the situations are affecting you and your colleagues.
2. Remain Objective and Professional
Don't get emotional when preparing your argument, and don't get angry. You need to remain professional throughout the exercise and show that while you are looking out to be certain you are getting the respect you deserve, you are also looking out for the betterment of the company as a whole. Getting emotional and angry can cause colleagues and upper management to lose respect for you, and can reduce the credibility of your argument.
3. Talk to the Boss - i.e. Communicate
It's possible he or she is not aware of the behavior that is causing him or her to be a bad boss. Be courageous - many people are afraid to confront a boss, and justifiably so. It takes nerve to confront someone who can make your life miserable, but since they are already doing that, you have little to lose.
Ask for a meeting so that you will have time to discuss without interruptions, and have an agenda with notes prepared so that you won't get flustered when it comes time to talk. Have your documents with you. Be brave, and be respectful. If your manager is not aware of any of these things, be understanding, and offer suggestions for improvement and what you need from him or her in order to reach mutual goals. If your boss is aware of his or her behavior and doesn't see a need to change, move on to step 2.
4. Be worthy of respect and ask for it
Tell your boss that you expect to be treated respectfully in the workplace, and provide examples of ways in which he or she has treated you disrespectfully. Be careful not to be too direct. This can often come across as an attack. Be sure to make it known that you're only trying to increase the company's performance beforehand.
5. Continue to Document Problems
Maintain your list of issues that are reoccurring. Eventually, you may have to escalate the situation to someone higher in management, and you will need an accurate list of what occurred before and after your talk with the boss. Include dates.
6. Escalate to Upper Management or HR.
If the behavior continues after confronting your manager, go to Human Resources, or to upper management, according to company policy. Your employee handbook should have a policy to tell you how to report complaints (typically referred to as "conflict resolution" or "grievances"). This is when your documentation comes into play, and it's another reason why it was so important that you spoke to your manager first yourself. It shows that you were professional and mature enough to try to resolve the matter on your own at departmental level.
7. Recognize when it's time to leave.
Sometimes, you do need to just walk away. There are situations when managers are toxic because the organization itself is toxic, and that's not a situation you are likely to change on your own. There's no shame in taking the high road and walking away, rather than risk letting the negative atmosphere impact other areas of your life, such as your home and family.
Always remember that good can come of a bad situation. If you are forced to leave, learn from the experience, and apply that knowledge in potential future situations. You can beat your bad boss. If you try hard enough, maybe you can even have their job. :)
Be on the lookout next week for a new topic. We've got some interesting stuff brewing in the IntegrityHR Blog Lab.
--
Help Integrity HR Spread the Word!
Use our blog as a resource - http://integrityhr.com/blog
Stay on top of of your organization by subscribing to our blog via email or RSS to the left. If you would like to Contact Us about any of the concepts in the above blog posting please call 502.753.0970.
Before You Go, Leave Your Feedback and Comments Below!
Posted on Fri, Mar 19, 2010 @ 09:14 AM
Do you ever wonder why your boss still has a job - or how he/she got there in the first place? In our last blog post addressing poor management, we listed a few more descriptions of bad managers. I actually find it quite eerie that I am going through this list right now. It seems over the last week as I have been writing these blogs that I have encountered nearly every type of bad manager in some form. Lucky for you we'll have your how to deal with poor management answers soon. Be sure to keep up!
Here are the final two types of bad bosses :
6) The Incommunicado Manager:
Needless to say, the managers who fail to communicate can fall under several of these categories. Perhaps they aren't communicating information from corporate to their employees or suggestions from their employees to corporate, but either way they appear to be lost with no goals, no clear expectations, no feedback, and no set time frames.
At least, not until something is overdue or not done to par. These managers also tend to stay behind their office door (often locked), poking their head out only occasionally for a glance to make sure they still have a staff. Employees are lost trying to meet expectations that are not defined, or that keep changing, and the managers don't recognize that they themselves are the problem. It is often the case that employees are punished for not doing things they didn't even know they were supposed to be doing?
Sound familiar? This can be one of the most destructive forms of bad bosses.
7) The Bad Employee Manager:
Finally, the worst of the worst. Sometimes, I'm sad to say, simply bad employees get promoted to managers. These managers can manifest in any number of horrors: The managers who claim everyone else's work as their own (probably how they got the position in the first place); the managers who also serve as the office gossip; the managers who are prone to emotional outbursts. The list can go on and on.
Throughout history, there are individuals who get promoted to management who have very little reason to be employed, let alone as a manager. Often, these reasons are beyond our control and beyond our reason (Ever worked with the President's nephew? You know what I'm talking about.) These types of managers can really hinder office morale.
Poor Management Makes No Sense
I couldn't agree more. Why do bad managers get to become managers, and why do they get to stick around? There are a number of reasons for this as well. One, companies are often reluctant to fire employees who need to be fired. Why? Check out this post on how to fire a bad employee.
Another reason is overall poor management of an organization. The "Peter Principle" asserts that in a business hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence. In other words, managers are promoted until they reach a job that they can no longer do successfully, but then they are kept in that job because the poor upper management doesn't want to upset the cart by doing anything about it. Maybe it's might be time for some organizational development training.
Finally, bad managers may stay in place because, although they manage people poorly, they may manage their department well. Production may be up, sales may be up, profit margins may be great, scrap may be low, customers may be happy, etc. The boss may be a high performer on every other scorecard (or they might just be very fortunate).
Bottom line is, in an organization that does not place high enough emphasis on employee satisfaction, managers with poor leadership skills will be overlooked if their department is functioning at a high level in spite of their poor interpersonal skills.
Now that you know the top 7 types of bad bosses you need to know what to do about them. Next time we will discuss how to deal with poor management. Don't miss it!
--
Help Integrity HR Spread the Word!
Use our blog as a resource - http://integrityhr.com/blog
Stay on top of of your organization by subscribing to our blog via email or RSS to the left. If you would like to Contact Us about any of the concepts in the above blog posting please call 502.753.0970.
Before You Go, Leave Your Feedback and Comments Below!
Posted on Tue, Mar 16, 2010 @ 12:23 PM
Part 2 of the Beating Bad Bosses Blog Series
In our last blog post we discussed two of the top 7 bad bosses and just how they can be destructive to an organization. Today, in this second installment of the series we will discuss a few more of these oh-so-undesirable types of managers. In Part 3, we will discuss what you can do to beat them (legally).
3) The Non-Leader Manager:
Just because individuals become managers, doesn't mean that they are leaders. This is where so many companies make the most dire mistake. Employees who are excellent at their jobs get moved into management positions, but while they can manage processes, they can't manage people (ever hear of the Peter Principle?). Maybe these are the managers who are afraid of confrontation, who are too wishy-washy, who fail to make a decision, and who refuse to cause a wave.
Employees recognize quickly, though, that managers who won't stand up for themselves, won't stand up for them, either. These are also the managers who don't have the respect of other managers in the workplace, or of their superiors. They themselves are not confident professionals who demand respect and authority and as such, cannot demand it for their team.
4) The All-Relationship Manager:
Some managers are all about the relationship. They mean well in their attempts to build a team, however as they do so they create chaos. As they let employees work without a framework of rules and discipline, their lack of infrastructure will eventually cause their department to collapse around them. What seems like fun at first will cause their employees to have no respect for them as employees get more and more frustrated in the loose environment.
This environment is also ripe for hurt feelings as things get too personal outside a framework of discipline. Managers and employees alike wear their heart on their sleeve and second guess every decision as having a personal motivation.
5) The No-Relationship Manager:
Equally bad are the No Relationship Managers. These are the managers who are all about the rules and the discipline who fail to develop any relationship with their employees, inviting hostility and rebellion. Employees do their best to stay under the radar to avoid the cold evaluation and absence of feedback. Without the give and take of a healthy leadership relationship, employees will be frustrated and disengaged, and will feel that their hard work is taken for granted.
Remember, the number one reason people leave an organization is because of poor management. Are you experiencing high employee turnover at your company? It might be time to think about how to deal with poor management. Part three will be posted in a couple of days. Don't miss it!
--
Help Integrity HR Spread the Word!
Use our blog as a resource - http://integrityhr.com/blog
Stay on top of of your organization by subscribing to our blog via email or RSS to the left. If you would like to Contact Us about any of the concepts in the above blog posting please call 502.753.0970.
Before You Go, Leave Your Feedback and Comments Below!
Posted on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 @ 02:46 PM
The Start of a New Series
Today marks the start of another IntegrityHR blog series. This will be an ongoing four part blog series coming to you over the next two weeks that gets down into the details of how to deal with poor management. Don't miss this one. It might save your job, or even your company!
There's a saying in corporate America that people don't leave jobs, they leave their managers. Promotions and pay increases notwithstanding, this is the case more often than not. The people you work with every day can make or break your experience on a job, and it's the manager of an organization that sets the tone and culture. A great boss can make you want to stay a job that may not pay as much as another down the street, while a bad boss makes the 20% raise you took seem like the devil's ransom.
What makes a manager a "bad boss"? There are any number of things that contribute to poor management, but we've dug down to the deepest depths of your daily dose of doom in this beating bad bosses blog (ok, we'll stop with the redundant letters) and have isolated the top seven categories of and how to deal with poor management
1) The Know It All Manager: The Know It All Managers got where they are by knowing their jobs and doing them well. They climbed the ladder quickly and resolutely and never looked back. They are the experts in their fields. And they know it. And they will be absolutely certain that you know it. The problem is that new talent can't emerge under a "my way or the highway" mentality.
While these managers have a wealth of knowledge to share, they often fail to recognize the importance of new ideas. When they feel threatened by the new ideas, they turn to micro-managing, refusing to delegate, and demanding that their stamp of approval be placed on everything - leading to the development of an entirely unapproachable manager and a company that won't develop.
2) The Know Nothing Manager:
The Know Nothing Managers, on the other hand, don't want to leave their stamp, or their fingerprints, on anything. They may claim that they are working on the "big picture", but the real problem is that they don't know the jobs they oversee well enough to dive in and do them themselves. The problem here is that they can't engage their employees, their talent, their projects, or their tools if they don't understand them.
Next thing you know, everyone is scrambling last minute to complete projects and meet deadlines due to their poor preparation and planning. Because they don't understand the jobs in their departments, they can't build upon the skills within them, and therefore can't build up their employees or develop them. These managers recognize that their staff have skills that surpass their own and feel threatened by them, creating animosity and distance, and alienating the team that they are supposed to be leading.
This leads to disgruntled employees because its easy for them to see that their manager (who makes a lot more money than they do and does much less) doesn't know the jobs that they get paid way less to do on a daily basis - needless to say a motivational killer.
Next Time:
In the next installment we will reveal the next two bad bosses, along with how they can lead to turmoil in your organization. Keep reading folks. This series may save your company.
--
Help Integrity HR Spread the Word!
Use our blog as a resource - http://integrityhr.com/blog
Stay on top of of your organization by subscribing to our blog via email or RSS to the left. If you would like to Contact Us about any of the concepts in the above blog posting please call 502.753.0970.
Before You Go, Leave Your Feedback and Comments Below!