Conjure up the term "bad boss" and what comes to
mind? Scenes of stony people berating subordinates in public. Wicked souls
taking credit for other people's work or saying one thing and doing another.
Cutting remarks. Yelling. Feel free to continue — we're sure you can.
But, not so fast. Our research suggests that the offensive actions so often associated with being a bad boss make up less than 20% of the behavior that actually defines the worst bosses.
The sins of the bad boss are far more often those of omission, not commission. That is, bad bosses are defined not so much by any appalling things they do as by certain critical things they don't do.
Here's the list in order, from the most to the least fatal:
1.
Failure to inspire, owing to a lack of energy and enthusiasm. Again
and again failed leaders were described by their colleagues as unenthusiastic
and passive. This was in fact the most noticeable of all their failings.
2.
Acceptance of mediocre performance in place of excellent results. The
poorest leaders did not set stretch goals, inadvertently encouraging mediocre
performance by letting people coast along doing less work, less well than their
counterparts working for better managers.
3.
A lack of clear vision and direction. Poor leaders have a murky view
of the future, don't know precisely what direction to take, and are (not
surprisingly) unwilling to communicate about the future, leaving their
subordinates with no clear path forward.
4.
An inability to collaborate and be a team player. Poor leaders avoid
their peers, act independently, and fail to develop positive relations with
colleagues. The worst of them view work as a competition and their colleagues
as opponents.
5.
Failure to walk the talk. Saying one thing and doing another is the
fastest way to lose the trust of all your colleagues. The worst offenders here
also pose a wider threat as dangerous role models — creating the
risk that
their organizations will degenerate if others behave as they do.
6.
Failure to improve and learn from mistakes. Arrogance and complacency
combine in the poorest leaders as they rise, causing them to come to the
dangerous conclusion that they've reached a stage in their careers where
development is no longer required. Closely connected to this failing is an
inability to learn from mistakes, leaving these unfortunates to repeat the same
ones over and over.
7.
An inability to lead change or innovate owing to a resistance to new ideas. Whether
stemming from a lack of imagination or simply too closed a mind-set, this flaw
manifests itself as a failure to take suggestions from subordinates or peers.
8.
A failure to develop others. Leaders who were not concerned about
helping their direct reports develop and were not seen as coaches or mentors
were highly likely to fail. Primarily focused on themselves, they were not
concerned about the longer-term success of their employees or their department.
9.
Inept interpersonal skills. These are the leaders who are rude, talk
down, yell, and belittle either out of positive malice or out of boorish
insensitivity. But even these failings often are manifested in things these
poor leaders don't do. Included in this group are the people who don't
listen, don't ask good questions, don't reach out to others, and don't praise
or otherwise reinforce good behavior and success.
10.
Displays of bad judgment that leads to poor decisions. Here at the
bottom are the leaders who lead the troops over the cliff by deciding to do the
wrong things.
While any one of these flaws can be fatal enough to tank a leader, our
research shows they are commonly displayed in groups of three or four, as one
problem creates another. But the point here is that fully eight out of ten of
these flaws stem from things leaders don't do.
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