People, on average, work for between 3 to 5 really bad bosses or managers (not a scientific fact, just based on my nonscientific study of asking people I know). Each one has their own unique qualities that make them awful. The important thing to learn from them is how not to treat people and how not to lead.
I learned some very important lessons from my very first bad manager. Although there were probably hundreds, there were three that have stuck with me until today.
TAKING CREDIT FOR OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK IS BOTH UNETHICAL AND JUST PLAIN MEAN.
As a recent college grad, I had ideas about everything, wanted to do a great job, and prove my worth. On my first project, a colleague and I revamped the process getting new consultants on-boarded from two weeks to 2 days.
• Saved the company thousands of dollars per new hire
• Clients got consultants that were able to impact projects much faster.
It made such an impact that a few key clients wanted to hear about how our organization made this happen.
My boss asked us to put together a presentation detailing our solution and review it with her. We did.
She asked us to write out Speaker’s notes “to help us when we get nervous during he presentation. We did.
The following week she delivered our presentation to the client in a meeting she had set up. We weren’t invited. During the meeting she did not mention that her employees came up with the ideas. In fact, she said she did all of it.
She was promptly given accolades and the opportunity to work on a big new client effort. The new client wanted her to implement a process to speed up on boarding. Since she hasn’t done the previous work herself, it didn’t go well. She was shocked when my colleague and I refused to help her.
Moral – Don’t take credit for work that isn’t your own. Someday someone will ask you do something similar. You will fail and no one will want to help you figure it out.
ASKING SOMEONE FOR THEIR OPINION AND THEN TELLING THEM THAT IT’S WRONG DOESN’T MAKE SENSE
At our team meetings, our boss would regularly ask our opinions about her ideas or approaches to solve problems. If we had opinions that didn’t agree with hers, she would tell us that our opinions were wrong. Not that she disagreed, but that we were wrong. She would then spend the rest of the meeting commenting on why our opinion was not correct. After a few meetings, we stopped giving our opinion all together.
Moral – if you are asking for input, you can’t disagree with everything that is different than what you think is right. That’s not leadership that just proves you are insecure.
LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT BUILDING PEOPLE UP NOT BREAKING THEM DOWN.
Linda was notorious for dressing people down in public. She wasn’t a yeller, but would talk about mistakes you made to everyone in the office…while you were sitting there.
When I confronted her about it, she said she was trying to motivate us. “If you stop making mistakes, I will stop making fun of you.”
What? That works for grade school friends. But, doing that will make adults refuse to try anything that might lead to ridicule. It will END innovation.
Our team turned over 100% in 8 months. Linda resigned.
Moral – Leading is about treating people BETTER than they expect.
I learned valuable lessons about how NOT to treat people. Linda made me a better leader and really appreciate the folks that I had the privilege to lead.
Working for her helped me see:
Sadly, she was not the worst manager I ever had. But that is a story for another day….
What’s a bad boss lesson that has helped you be a better leader?
Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.
Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
