A Very Bad Boss. What to Do to Be Remembered As a Poor Manager

Everyone has met a boss who wants to be involved, set their own rules and take part in solving every issue. As a result, the employees get demotivated and non-initiative, they don’t feel personally responsible for the result anymore and don’t believe in the project. First of all, you need to teach colleagues to be as much autonomous as possible. The boss expects that their team will not only run errands but set the course of solving the task basing on their experience, expertise and planning a certain number of possible scenarios of development of the situation. This allows the members of the team understand that the decision was made by themselves, involves them in the process, makes them believe in it and be fully personally responsible for it. No doubt, such an approach requires the certain balance and talent from the manager: how to guide the employee if what they suggest is clearly not the thing you need? It’s even better to guide them in such a way that they are sure it is their own decision. Then the effect will not be long in coming - the person will root for the project, live it, be responsible for it. When a person comes to the company, at first you should use the method of “manual management”: control the new employee and tell them what and how to do. Having supervised how they cope with work, if they can generate ideas and fulfil the set tasks, you can let them “free float”.

As for the balance, it is the balance between “I am the boss” and “I am the leader”. A rare manager will refuse themselves the pleasure of being “bossy”, but it is important to control this process. It is often necessary when the project is in the crisis stage, the analysis of numbers and data is required and the workflow has worsened but the person responsible doesn’t react to the problem. In this case you have to take the management of the project in your hands and “sort it out”: you do this, you do that and that. However, in these moments the team don't worry because they know that if the boss takes up managing the process, there are serious reasons for that. In less critical situations the model “the leader - the team” can be applied, when the boss and the subordinates discuss, agree, brainstorm, etc. Priority setting is no less important. When there is a task that requires full involvement, obviously, other tasks are paid much less attention and time. For the employees to avoid the crisis of unsolved tasks and the necessity to defend themselves, it is important for you to specify which task must be fulfilled now and which one is postponed for a short time. It is useful for you as the boss as well: the subordinates will see that the boss doesn’t simply “cut” the tasks, but really understands who does what. The workday is not endless and priority setting indeed plays a great role.

This happens to newly-minted managers: the person has just taken office and decided to delegate all the tasks to the team at once and even send replies to incoming messages to the subordinates with a note FYI (for your information). As a rule, this provokes a great negative reaction of the employees, unwillingness to take part in the process, problems with time-management and delays. Delegating means creating a team where responsibilities and roles are distributed, this is the organization of the process with indicated time frames, performs, the leader and the goals. The point of delegating is to give the person the additional area of responsibility to motivate them, not to relieve yourself from the responsibility and shift it to another person. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that you don’t penetrate into the matter, but you spend less time on work processes and make one person responsible for everything and this person arranges all the necessary actions (meetings, calls, communication with regions, etc). Besides, it is very important for you to know the tasks of the department that you manage and be ready to answer any question. For example, I never resend letters that have been written by my employees, not me: we arrange a meeting, try to go deeper into the matter, I make some corrections. The boss is the final link that is why it is important to spend time on it, “pack the product” before sending it further - “up”. It is a great way to set the discipline in the team - I know that my staff never send anything without my revision and they know that I check everything and if I have questions, we will sort them out together, correct something if necessary and I will teach how it needs to be done. The boss is also a protector of their team. Sometimes you can see a manager telling that something wasn’t their fault, but their subordinate’s. It doesn’t work like this. The manager must check everything by themselves, discuss all possible questions and correct all the mistakes, in other words, to be an internal expert. Only in this case, they can be called a boss and not a courier who simply resends the information.

In great wrap-up events, when the manager says “I” about the results of the work in the presence of the team, it appears unfair and wrong. In a moment like this, it is extremely important to emphasize the result of the teamwork, say “we” and point out certain people inside this “we” if it is necessary. Another case when the manager doesn’t invite the team to the meeting with the top management at all. The team doesn’t know what the point is, what priorities are set on higher levels. This also isn't good for the company on the whole: inner talents remain unrevealed, and they are unrevealed because of the boss of the department. Very often such actions are characteristic of insecure managers who are afraid of being surpassed. Recognizing the achievements of the team in front of the top management is a powerful motivation element - so why not using it? In my work, I always follow the rule: to begin or to end the presentation by introducing the employees who took part in the project. Also, it is customary for our company to hold briefings with the president during which we praise employees and their achievements. I try to involve my employees in such events. My team has already won several awards on the global level as well. And I always enjoy more seeing my 20 employees standing on the stage and receiving the recognition they deserved than I would enjoy standing there alone.