How to Spot a Bad Boss
A good leader possesses soft skills like effective communication, a commitment to teamwork, and problem-solving abilities. Good leaders motivate and inspire their employees to become better workers, which improves the company’s bottom line while reducing turnover. However, excellent leaders are rare, and bad bosses are everywhere; I don’t know a working professional who has not had an experience with a bad boss. Bad bosses destroy employee morale and motivation and negatively impact customers, peers, revenue, and profits. Employee experience is closely tied to revenue, so it would stand to reason that companies would want to purge their ranks of bad bosses. As we are all aware, this is often not the case. Bad bosses have a way of hanging around, like a lingering cough that won’t go away. Your best bet is to try to avoid working for a bad boss, which is much easier said than done. Bad bosses can be challenging to spot at first, particularly if you are interviewing with one for a new role. Here are some Bad Boss Behaviors that you should be on the lookout for:
They don’t recognize contributions or reward successes. A bad boss will often have a negative attitude about their team and constantly find fault with even the most minute details. They rarely utter positive or kind words to their employees.
They hire/promote the wrong people. Bad bosses tend to be driven by their egos; as such, they think that only people who think and act as they do are worthy of joining the team. This begets more bad bosses who will inevitably be released out into the wild and become bad bosses at other companies. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle.
They micromanage. Few things taint employee experience like being micromanaged. It’s awful, and it’s ineffective. It is a sign of someone who is insecure and is in over their head.
They don’t deal with conflict. In any human interaction, conflict is inevitable. Bad bosses ignore conflict among team members and allow bad feelings to fester.
They place blame on their employees. A good leader is accountable for the performance of their team. A good leader owns it. A bad boss throws people under the bus.
They don’t clearly articulate expectations. A good boss is clear on expectations and delineates what needs to be done. A bad boss expects you to be psychic and intuit what goes on in their mind. I have thousands of examples if anyone is interested!
They reject new ideas and different ways of getting things done. A bad boss wants to keep on doing what they’ve always done. If you want to do it differently, you are wrong.
They use a “my way or the highway” approach to management. There is only one way to proceed with a bad boss, which is in the way that said bad boss has defined. If you suggest something other than this, you will be labeled as not being a team player.
Use these tips to identify and avoid bad bosses. If you currently work for a bad boss, realize that the only person you can change is yourself, not the boss. Your most effective course of action is to execute a job search either internally or externally. And while most bosses are not all-around bad, some out there are caricatures of cartoon villains. What has been your experience with bad bosses? Comment and share your story!