Nothing is worse than finding yourself working for a bad boss. While almost everyone has been in this situation and understands what makes their boss dreadful, they do not take the lesson to heart when they become a manager themselves. Here are five key areas where bad bosses fail in their management duties:
1. Remaining Uninvolved with Employees – Obviously, the workplace is not intended to be primarily focused on our social lives. Still, a certain degree of friendliness and social interaction is necessary to develop rapport with each other. Poor managers ignore this fact and treat their fellow employees as underlings who are mere tools to be directed and used as necessary. Good managers, on the other hand, understand that civility in general and observing the social niceties lead to a better harmonized team that simply works better together and produces superior results.
2. Providing Unclear Guidance – The worst managers make every task an ASAP priority and then leave the decision-making to their subordinates. Employees are then required to become mind readers when a difficulty or delay is encountered. The result is that some people work on the earliest assigned tasks first and do not move on to the next until it is finished. Others take a different tack and work on the last task assigned and work their way back – presumably hoping that some of the earlier tasks will fall through the cracks. The real result is that there are no priorities and tasks are completed in an unorganized and haphazard style.
3. Having and Inability to Trust – Micromanagement is the hallmark of a poor manager. This is not to say that you shouldn’t check on progress but keep it to a minimum and allow the employees to make reports to you rather than demanding constant updates. Micromanagement is a sign that you do not trust the decision and the ability of your subordinates and is incredibly demotivating. As mentioned above, set the expectation and the schedule and allow your employees to do their job unmolested – you will often be happily surprised.
4. Ignoring Employee Opinions – While not always relevant, actively listening to employee input is critical for obtaining their buy-in when implementing new procedures or starting a new project. You may have to the guide input into productive areas but listening is essential for demonstrating that the employees and their opinions are valued. In addition, active listening is more than just nodding one’s head and paying lip service to the comments. A good manager will demonstrate their understanding of the comment, indicate if it can be utilized and recognize the employee for their thoughts.
5. Making Unilateral Decisions – This behavior is the bane of employee empowerment. Unless you want to be overseeing or actually doing everything yourself, you must engage your subordinates in the decision-making process. Obtaining feedback about “proposed” changes and then ignoring the feedback because the decision has already been made will only fool people for a short while. After all, your front-line people are probably most able to diagnose and offer solutions to a particular problem. Management efforts to resolve an issue will typically not be the same and the entire decision-making process will be exposed as the sham that it is.
As you can see, poor management technique ultimately leaves the manager doing far more work than is necessary. Do yourself a favor and avoid these behaviors like the plague. You, your subordinates and your superiors will applaud the results.
