Bad managers are injurious to health!

"Why is my manager so bad?" This question is so common that we need to look at it a little more deeply and I have to ask the following questions: is it a genuine issue or a reflexive resistance to authority?

The unsettling / undesirable truth is that, indeed, there are many managers who fall grossly short of even the basic mark. A glance at employee reviews on Glassdoor confirms this, there is a pressing need to fix the problem, employee grievances are bordering on embarrassing and shameful for many organizations. One primary cause is the appointment of people managers without adequate training, clueless about their core responsibility: problem-solving for their team members and facilitating their optimal performance (making life easy, servant leadership and solving their problems in simple words).

Assuming that high performance in an individual role guarantees leadership ability and skill is a fatal flaw in our current promotion criteria. This mistake, persisting across years, becomes irreversible as these BAD managers move between companies or even worse get promoted to more senior roles. Having no proper / safe feedback mechanisms does not help either.

Most common manager failures:

The Authoritarian Manager: This figure feels an excessive hunger for authority. Their new title inflates an ego that changes their core personality.

They feel like they’re running a one person country. The new manager is always right.

The Spineless Leader: Essential to effective leadership is standing up for the team. However, the spineless quickly sacrifice team members during crises and readily endorse management decisions without considering their impact on the team or their ability to take on more work.

The Credit-Seeker: These individuals snatch credit for successes, disregarding the team's contributions. Insecure and fearing subordinates' success, they bask in borrowed glory while totally undermining the team's efforts.

The Biased Leader: Inevitable biases can quickly morph into extreme favoritism, unfairly promoting certain individuals and harshly treating others. Such behavior severely impacts team morale.

The Robotic Manager: Lack of empathy for team members hinders performance. Managers must recognize and respect the emotions of their team, not treating them like emotionless machines. We are afterall dealing with real people who are quite often emotional.

The above types often manipulate, divide, expect results without guidance & feedback, disregard colleagues' input, micromanage, intimidate, and more. The after effects are horrifying and have a deep impact on the basic wellbeing of employees. "Bad managers are injurious to health".

Correcting these issues isn't straightforward or maynot even be possible, but when you assume a leadership role, prioritize your team's happiness, foster creativity, and ensure their comfort so that you did your part to make the workplace better.

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