Listen While You Work/Drive/…….:
We all have those people in charge of us – our direct reports, our managers, our mentors, our politicians, our parents, our spouses who are an animal of the horse family, with longer ears and a braying call that just irritates.
The ideal boss is seen as a person who inspires, encourages, supports and believes in their employees and, more importantly, will bat for their employees when needed. The ideal ‘balanced’ boss is one that is constantly looking for his/her replacement and coaching employees to grow. The secret here is that this allows the boss to grow and advance up the ladder too.
Gallup finds that great managers have the following talents:
- They motivate every single employee to take action and engage them with a compelling mission and vision.
- They have the assertiveness to drive outcomes and the ability to overcome adversity and resistance.
- They create a culture of clear accountability.
- They build relationships that create trust, open dialogue, and full transparency.
- They make decisions that are based on productivity, not politics.
It is said that employees don’t leave shitty companies they leave shitty bosses.
Bosses from hell share many of the same traits that a narcissist displays and are guilty of these traits:
- Micromanagement
- Throttle or deny you room to grow
- Take credit for your work
- Come in late and leave early, but expect you to arrive early and leave late
- They epitomise the definition of, “do as I say, not as I do”.
- They believe that their experience and status has earned them the right to do as they please.
- Lead by fear
- They are incapable of leading by example. They have nothing to offer in the way of motivation or inspiration.
- They’ve manipulated their way to the top and are in constant fear of losing their position.
- They rarely, if ever, give you accolades
- They believe that acknowledging accomplishments is a sign of weakness and you won’t work as hard after you receive them.
- They demoralize you and your self-worth
- They believe that being employed by them is a privilege.
- They remind you constantly how tough it would be to get another job and that you should feel lucky to even be employed.
- They take away your freedom of choice
- They’re indecisive and blame you for missing deadlines
- They are driven by not losing instead of winning
- A terrible boss will stunt your potential growth with their own fear of losing.
- They belittle you in front of others.
Compare the above with a someone with Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) – the term comes from a character in Greek mythology, called Narcissus. He saw his reflection in a pool of water and fell in love with it. NPD is one of a group of conditions known as dramatic personality disorders. The person will have unstable and intense emotions and a distorted self image.
The most common traits found in people with NPD are:
- An insatiable appetite for the attention of others
- Extreme feelings of jealousy
- An expectation of special treatment
- Exaggerating achievements, talents, and importance
- Extreme sensitivity and a tendency to be easily hurt and to feel rejected with little provocation
- Difficulty maintaining healthful relationships
- Fantasizing about their own intelligence, success, power, and appearance
- An ability to take advantage of others to achieve a goal, without regret or conscience
- A lack empathy, or ability to understand and share the feelings of others, and a tendency to disregard others’ feelings
- A belief that only certain people can understand their uniqueness
- A tendency to consider themselves as skilled in romance
- Responding to criticism with anger, humiliation, and shame
- Seeking out praise and positive reinforcement from others
- An expectation that others will agree with them and go along with what they want
- Whatever they crave or yearn for must be “the best”
So you have a shitty boss what should (or could) you do:
First of all try to understand why your boss is a shit – maybe he/she is under enormous pressure to perform, maybe your boss has not received the correct training or guidance to become a leader (this often happens when a co-worker gets promoted), maybe your boss is out of their depth, maybe your boss is just a career Boss From Hell…
It is at this stage that you need to make a decision around your career – do you dedicate time to helping your boss get better or do you bail. Unfortunately these are the only two decisions that you can make before your Boss From Hell either forces you to resign in frustration or fires your sorry ailing heart.
According to Career.com, people who have bosses from hell are 60% more likely to suffer a heart attack or other cardiac condition. On the other end of the spectrum, people with excellent leadership at work are 40% less likely to develop heart problems.
BUT, before you decide that your Boss is really a Boss From Hell do a little introspection and check that it is not YOU that is the Employee From Hell.
Good employees display good versions of these characteristics: Leadership Skills, Organizational Skills, Excellent Written and Verbal Communication, Intelligence, Active Listening Skills, Honesty, Ambition and a Strong Work Ethic, Action-oriented, Ambitious, Autonomous, Cultural Fit, Upbeat, Confident, Successful, Detail Oriented, Modest, Marketable and Passionate.
Hiring the correct employees for a SME is vital. Training an employee on your product or service is easy. You cannot train someone to have integrity, resiliency, self-confidence and a strong work ethic.
Example: When we ran a monitoring and armed response company under Reach Trust, we allowed employees to have a major part in the decision around new hires by placing short list candidates on overlapping shifts with existing employees so that the potential recruits could see the working environment, interact with existing employees, ask the questions they needed to ask about their bosses and make a decision. At the same time our employees were assessing the potential new recruit to see if they would be happy working alongside this new person and. more importantly, trust their lives to this person.
You may be an Employee From Hell if you do these things at work:
- Know it all
- Negative attitude
- Personal issues
- Can’t be trusted
- Never there
- Argue every point your boss makes
- Have communication issues
- Always busy with someone else´s business
The difference between a good Boss and an exceptional Boss lies in how they handle an employee from hell. The easiest way to deal with most types of employees of hell is to fire them and get rid of the toxic influence they have on your business. An exceptional boss will explain, counsel and give such employees a chance to change. Often the boss leading by example and showing employees how to do things whilst changing their behavioural characteristics will result in a far stronger more productive team.
References:
- Medical News Today: All about narcissistic personality disorder
- Harvard Business Review: Why Good Managers Are So Rare
- Forbes: 15 Traits Of The Ideal Employee
Alan Straton
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