Dealing with “My Way or the Highway” Boss Approach

I would like to start this article with one of my personal experiences. A decade ago, I was landed by chance to work with a multinational company, where my boss always tried to manage employees through fear and intimidation? He was quite a dictator, and I believe that it was his personality problem. We all know that dictator leaders negatively impact team performance and mostly kills productivity and creativity. Anyway, when I was assigned my roles and responsibilities, as a first task he asked me to prepare a schedule for a Turnaround/Shutdown project. He gave me a sample schedule that he earlier prepared and strictly advised me to prepare the new schedule the same way.

I took the sample schedule, reviewed it thoroughly and discussed it with fellow workers. The team members told me that, don’t ever try to change it and follow the boss instructions. During the detailed review, I observed some discrepancies and insufficient detailing with the schedule and the way it was organized. However, I was a new employee and wanted to give a try to do some value additions in the existing schedule template. I knocked on the door of my boss's office and tried to explain, however, as expected, he scolded me to follow the instructions. I was slightly disappointed however considering my “to do attitude and never give up approach”, I tried to find a more convincing way to satisfy the dictator boss.

I calmed myself down and tried to practice a trick that I learned when I was a high school student. I was able to recall my memory, as I was in such a situation with one of my autocrat math teachers. Our teacher doesn’t like to be questioned even when he was wrong, and I was a kind of rebel who often stood up and challenged the mathematical mistakes that he was making. And that teacher always punished me for doing the repeated questioning and reported my behavior to the principal. On such an occasion, he kicked me out of class and took me to the principal. The principal asked him to continue the class and asked me to sit and explain the situation. I explained to the principal that I did nothing wrong rather I pointed out a mistake that he made concerning one of the mathematics formulas.

The principal was a wise person and he taught me a lesson for life that day. He advised me to behave innovatively when dealing with such situations and proposed an innovative way for the future. He asked me to apologize to the teacher so that he can allow me to sit in his class. I promised the principal that I will follow his advice and act accordingly. After a couple of weeks, again such a situation happened where my math teacher was again repeating some mistake with the formula. I stood up again to point the error, however bit differently this time. Before I can speak, the teacher looked at me angrily however considering the principal’s advice I quickly informed him that the math formula is incorrect in “the math book”. Firstly, he was a little surprised and then asked me to show him the book. He looked at the book and told us that the book is correct, and he perceived it incorrectly. He corrected the mistake on the chalkboard and thanked me. Afterward, he was always very nice to me and he acknowledged me in front of the principal as one of the best students in his class.

I decided not to confront the boss and gave a chance to the innovative way that I learned at school with a bit of variation with my dictator boss. Although I had to work more hours to prepare the one schedule as per boss instructions and the other one that we as the team believed that would be a better project schedule.  I finalized both schedules, printed on the paper and took with me to discuss it with the boss. Firstly, I presented him with the schedule as per his instructions that he was used to. Then looking for the right opportunity, I informed him that I have another schedule for his review based on new ideas as discussed with the team. With little hesitation and out of curiosity, he permitted me to present the other schedule. After my presentation, he surprised me by saying that, you are the first employee who presented him two different schedules to choose from and that I must have worked overtime to prepare both. My boss found the other schedule acceptable as a baseline as it was better organized, detailed and was comprehensive.

Later, I informed the team about the boss's decision and they were surprised too, as it never happened in his history as a boss. But I explained the team a different way to deal with a dictator boss as confrontations can damage working relationships and can cause conflicts.

However, while it’s quite natural for a boss to appreciate those who follow instructions and never challenge however sometimes, we as employees, also reluctant to go the extra mile to suggest new ideas. For example, when I hire people, I look for ones who will challenge me and who aren’t afraid to tell me things that may be difficult to absorb. When making decisions, I want to be surrounded by team members who will question my strategies and suggest alternatives that I may not have thought of. “My Way or the Highway” attitude might get you results in the short term, but what about the long-term consequences?

So we need to ask ourselves, are you a boss who leads through fear? Unfortunately, a lot of leaders do this as sometimes it even works. If your staff fears you, you might get some out of them but not 100 percent.

Let’s have a look at some of the disadvantages of the “My Way or The Highway” approach?

• Negatively Impact Productivity

Bosses who take this approach think that productivity will be improved, but maybe in the short term. Over the long term, an employee will try to finish work quickly, make more mistakes, experience stress, and eventually burn out and become unproductive.

• Kill Employee’s Creativity

Bosses who rule by fear don’t encourage risk-taking, out of box thinking, innovation and growth. It simply could kill the employee’s creativity.

• Destroy Communication

As a boss, do you want subordinates to say, “Yes Boss,” “As you say, Boss,”? Imagine that you instruct a way of doing things that just isn’t going to work; but an employee is so afraid of you that the response is, “Yes Sir.” Although he/she knows that your strategy is flawed. By adopting this approach, you just destroy communication. Employees may have ideas of cost-saving or operational and process improvements, but they will not share anymore.

• Good Employees Quit

Good employees don’t leave good companies, they quit toxic culture. An autocratic boss will kill their creativity, productivity and they will go looking for better jobs. If your management style causes employees to feel stressed, demotivating, and generally miserable, you know what? Good employees quit.

While alternative viewpoints can be difficult to hear, often these are exactly what you need. Make every effort to create a culture where innovative ideas and different opinions are encouraged will result in a thriving and growing workplace. Successful leaders empower their team and they don’t intimidate. Strive to build trust, communicate effectively, and develop a team that wants to follow you without fear of the “My Way or the Highway” approach.

Written By: MUJAHID AKHTAR