How to deal with difficult bosses
Competent, kind, worthy of trust and respect, or bully, intrusive, controlling, picky and petty?
What kind of boss or immediate supervisor do you deal with? Although in all kind of industries, loyalty and dedication from employees is required by leaders, they are said to rarely return their half of the equation, leaving employees feeling left behind and unsupported by ignoring their ideas or even belittling them in public. Here are the 4 types of “bad bosses” that make employees quit organizations.
1. “The puppet” of the business
Always following orders, never standing up for the team, this manager is giving no loyalty to employees. He/she continuously pushes them to work long hours or contact them after hours ignoring work/life balance.
Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress. - Richard Branson
2. The “center of the universe”
This type of manager sends the message: “I am more important than you”. He/she does not treat people as people; not even learn the team members’ names; barely smiles or makes eye contact and never takes interest in what others are doing.
3. Problem centric boss
Instead of being solution centric, this boss is quick to focus on the problem itself and to blame employees, destroying his/her credibility and therefore leading to a culture of distrust. Good bosses take responsibility and focus on solving problems.
4. Neutral Boss
Being a neutral boss is toxic to teams’ creativity. They might not blame or punish their personnel, but they don’t recognize accomplishments, neither appreciate employees or show them they value their efforts. They avoid saying, "Thank You" or "Well done" and get always onward to the next project.
Get to the doing; 8 ways to deal with a difficult boss
- Be self-aware
- Be resilient
- Clarify your values
- Learn what to avoid
- Learn from bosses’ strengths - (They probably have some)
- Be more determined
- Practice gratitude from the negative situations experienced
- Aspire to good leadership
Did you know?
Most of the times, employees’ behavior determines different managerial styles, according to the Theory X and Theory Y. The first one explains that employees are inherently lazy and work only for the money. Subsequently, they work successfully only if the manager is forcing them to work. In that case the motivation comes from the manager while in Theory Y management style people gain self-worth from doing meaningful work and thus do a good.
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Training Instructor / Officer at Technomar Crew Management Corporation
5 年In todays modern style of management strategies, perhaps it would be more helpful and wise for difficult bosses to re-think such approach. Positive motivation, mutual respect and helping employees reach their full potential are achieved with help from bosses not by being difficult but by being open minded, supportive of their employees. Making things difficult by this kind of bosses are not helping in any way a management who wants to retained the best employees.