Bad Managers I have known

Listeners tuning in for a “kiss and tell” tale of the bad, worse and indefensibly awful are going to be disappointed. I guess we can all point out some individuals who shouldn’t be left in charge of a whelk stall let alone a group of talented fellow beings, but if we were asked to objectively categorize behavioural actions that make up a bad manager, we’d get rather stuck.

But this doesn’t stop many trying to earn a bit of coin in selling us their thoughts on what constitutes a ‘bad’ manager, what Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom has described as “a ton of B.S. around this, from airport bookstore pulp fiction.” A quick search on Amazon for literature on the subject throws up 539 oeuvres on the subject, with many laying claim to some sort of science under-pinning their analysis and prescription. But, fellow traveller, we will find that there is little more than guesswork and cod psychology forming the basis of this ‘research’.

The point of these writings is to sell these writings – little else. There is the distinct whiff of snake oil in the air and solutions to perceived problems that have no more solidity to them then castle in the sky.

We will all be familiar with the forest of forgettable infographics, so oft displayed in this very medium, and the hundreds of approving reactions to such postulations. But really, do they actually bear any sensible level of scrutiny?

When you skip through the lists one can develop a warm internal glow from the self-grading that says, “Well I’m not a micro-manager!” or “I’d never phone my team after working hours”. To be honest, I would quite like the senior surgeon, with 30 years’ experience, do a spot of micro-management in the operating theatre where my heart is being replaced. I don’t think I would also be too troubled by a manager phoning me after hours if it stopped a terrible mistake that I was about to make the very next day.

Many claim to be able to prove what makes a bad or indeed a good manager, but that is about as scientific as it gets. To quote Nicholas Bloom again, from Stephen Dubner’s excellent podcast ‘Freakonomics Radio’, “No one could really give us a straight answer on what defined a good or bad leader. You look at the data, and there’s 10 different recipes for success. Maybe they each work for a particular case study, but I’ve still, 20 years later, struggled to find anything that’s the secret recipe beyond saying, “Sure, there are some people better than others.” But it’s damn hard to tell what it is.”

From the same show Steve Tadelis, an economics professor at the Haas School of Business goes on to talk about his research about the impact on staff retention of different managers and that there is a positive correlation between managers who are rated highly in staff feedback and retention, but and here’s the big but, we can’t say why. When asked by Dubner what would Tadelis like to study more to try and understand why this happened, Tadelis noted, “Something that’s very hard to measure that I believe is important is compassion. I guess if this is going to be on the radio, I might lose my economist card.”

And there perhaps we have it. If you scan through yet another pretty infographic list or find yourself tempted in LAX to buy a book on bad management, then what you will see (read) are descriptors of pretty awful human beings, and therefore the key to putting successful managers in place is avoid hiring or promoting people that are not actually decent folk. Agreed, my prescription is not that scientific either, but you have just saved yourself $29.99 at the bookstore.

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