Could you be a bad boss? Is it possible that any of your team come to work each day thinking if they only had a different boss or if their boss would ‘play ball’ life would be a whole lot easier and they could get on better with doing their job? Here are a couple of stories I heard from clients this week who had their own, very different takes and ways of dealing with what they considered to be a bad boss.

Change of boss?

John’s work life had become increasingly difficult since he acquired his boss 18 months previously.  Although his boss showed an interest in John’s personal development, the occasions when they got together were few and far between and John became more and more frustrated at his lack of progress. Eventually he decided that rather than keep ‘banging his head against a brick wall’ he would be better off elsewhere and after being approached by a competitor, accepted an offer of a similar role where he knew the boss was someone who put her team’s personal development as a priority.
At first all was well and John settled in to his new role quite quickly. After some initial ‘hand holding’, John was ready to be let loose with his new responsibilities but that never quite happened. For whilst his new boss was happy to give him as much time as he needed on his personal development, her style also included keeping tight control over everything that was going on, getting involved in even the tiniest detail of the team’s activities. This didn’t suit John at all, who had got used to his previous boss’s style of letting him get on with things. Ultimately, John ended up with someone else he considered a ‘bad boss’, but this time for different reasons.

Coping strategies
John realized that after two ‘bad bosses’ in a row, maybe it was time to look to himself to see what changes he could make rather than try yet another boss. Having such a detailed scrutiny of his work was never going to suit him so we worked on coping strategies to adopt whilst he stayed the length of time in this role which would look reasonable on his CV before moving on. And during that period he would be able to take advantage of the personal development opportunities available to him.
And this week another of my clients has developed coping strategies for his  own set of  circumstances. He is ready to step in to the role of his boss who is retiring at the end of this year. Everything is in place for a gradual handover, however, in the last few months the boss’s behaviour has started to change and not in positive ways – blocking initiatives he would normally have agreed, picking up on minor points, demanding to be involved in issues he has previously shown no interest in. My client realizes this is all probably because his boss is fighting the inevitable and has worked out some ways of both keeping his boss ‘on side’ for these remaining months and keeping himself happy when that doesn’t quite work.
And as a leader in business, you could find yourself at either end of these problems, so if you would like to know how YOU can deal with a bad boss OR if you would like to be the sort of boss who can help people look to themselves to change rather than blaming others, call me on 07551303835 or email allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation