BEWARE THE TOXIC BOSS-ARE YOU ONE? (OR DO YOU HAVE ONE?)

BEWARE THE TOXIC BOSS-ARE YOU ONE? (OR DO YOU HAVE ONE?)

Let’s start with the bad news! Toxic bosses are very significant problem in all types of organizations across the globe. The data has been piling up around us for years. A Gallup study from 2012 indicated that half of the people who quit their jobs quit to get away from a bad boss. That would mean for example that 1 million people in the USA quit their jobs every month to get away from their bosses.   Gallup’s global study indicated that only about 13% of employees are actually engaged at work and bad management is one of the primary reasons for this problem.

I prefer to use the expression “Toxic boss” instead of simply saying “bad boss” because bad bosses aren’t just bad, they are actually toxic. They not only execute their tasks poorly, they poison their entire organization. Since managers lead other people, the effects of a bad boss impact many other people. These negative effects contaminate everyone and everything they come into contact with.

So what is the good news. The first bit of good news is that in the same way that toxic bosses can poison the environment, good human bosses can spread positive effects throughout their organizations. The second bit of good news is that we know more about management, leadership and employee engagement than ever before. Today, there is a body of knowledge that can help anyone become a better manager if they are willing to challenge themselves, reflect upon their own values and learn new skills and behaviors. The question is if you are open to new ways of approaching your role as manager?

This simple test is developed based on the acclaimed management book “The Human Way” by leadership expert Kelly Odell. So the question is, are you a toxic boss? Or, if you are an employee, use the test to see if you work for a toxic boss.

1. Do you think that one of your primary responsibilities is to make wise decisions and that the role of your employees is primarily to implement those decisions?

2. Do you frequently feel the need to dig into the details in order for everything to work out?

3. Is it important for you to find the person or persons who are responsible when things go wrong?

4. In a typical meeting with your employees do you normally talk more than other people in the meeting?

5. Do you often feel frustrated when your employees ask too many questions or talk about issues too much?

6. Do you find it easy to make quick decisions and often rely on your intuition?

7. Do you believe it is important as a manager to take all necessary measures to minimize or eliminate risks in the organization?

If you answered yes to one or two of these questions

If you answered yes to one or two of these questions you probably have nothing to worry about. You have the insight to know that no one is perfect and that you need to work continuously to maintain and develop your skills as a manager. You are aware that your role as a manager is primarily to facilitate the efforts and decision making of the people in the organization. You are also aware that success as a manager is more about supporting the right behaviors than it is about executing tasks. You understand that good leadership is one of many important skills necessary for success and that as a manager your primary focus is to create the best possible environment where the needs of the individual and the needs of the group are in balance.

If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions

If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions you may need to rethink some of your notions about leadership. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are a toxic boss but you definitely indicate a leaning in that direction. You may have a tendency to place too high a value on achieving various tasks or goals and miss out on the real underlying purpose of your organization. Keep in mind that the more involved people are, the more engaged and motivated they tend to be about their work and ultimately engagement breeds productivity. Challenge yourself to delegate more of the planning and decision-making work to employees. Delegate and then leave them alone to do their jobs. Avoid micromanaging and forget all about looking for scapegoats or culprits when things don’t work out. Remember that your employees might not do things exactly the way you would have done them. They might even do them better than you!

If you find yourself answering yes to many of the questions above you are in danger of being a toxic boss. But there is still hope for you. The fact that you took the time to read this article and take the test indicates that you are not too far gone. Most hard core toxic bosses have so little self-awareness that they would not see the need to read an article about toxic bosses. This is in fact the greatest challenge with toxic bosses, they simply don’t understand that they are a problem. Toxic bosses tend to see all sorts of problems with employees, the organization, processes and much more. They see themselves as problem solvers and never realize that they themselves can be a big part of the problem.

If you answered yes to many of these questions

If you answered yes to many of these questions you are probably a person who tends to place extremely high demands on yourself. You likely feel that as a manager you are responsible for everything. You believe your job is to make wise decisions and then to make sure decisions get implemented.   You probably often feel frustration about getting employees on board. Despite the fact that you place a great deal of focus on achieving results you are likely not as successful as you would like to be and you probably have many employees who are dissatisfied with both their work and with you as their manager. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Scoring highly on this test has more to do with the things you do than who you are. We can all change our behaviors if we want to.

Following are a few things you might want think about if you want to find the antitoxin for your toxic leadership.

1. Do you think that one of your primary responsibilities is to make wise decisions and that the role of your employees is primarily to implement those decisions?

I usually say that a manager’s job is not to make wise decisions, it is to see to it that wise decisions get made. This means that more often than not those decisions need to be made by someone other than the manager. Depending on your organizational culture you will probably still be held accountable for the decision but that isn’t the same thing as making the decision. By facilitating good decisions instead of making them all yourself, you will improve the quality of the decisions and increase your employees’ involvement in the decision process. This will lead to higher levels of engagement and a stronger understanding of and loyalty to the decisions.

2. Do you frequently feel the need to dig into the details in order for everything to work out?

Someone once said that “the devil’s in the detail” and this is no doubt often true. I would not go so far as to say that a manager should never dig into the details, however, many toxic bosses paralyze their organizations with constant “deep-dives” boring down to the most irrelevant minutia. If you find yourself constantly in need of more details then there is something fundamentally wrong in your organization and it just might be you. If you go back to the first question and make sure to delegate decision making then you shouldn’t have to have to micromanage.

3. Is it important for you to find the person or persons who are responsible when things go wrong?

Don’t look for the guilty party when things go wrong in your business, look instead for the cause and solution. Even better, encourage your organization to find, understand and resolve the problem without your direct involvement. People make mistakes all the time and that really isn’t the problem. The problem is why they make the mistakes. Do they lack skills or competence to do things right? Do they lack information? Is there something wrong in your processes? Going on “witch hunts” or looking for scapegoats when things go wrong spawns an organizational culture where problems get swept under the carpet and no problem ever got solved under the carpet.

4. In a typical meeting with your employees do you normally talk more than other people in the meeting?

This is a hard one for me and many other managers. I like to talk and as a manager I can easily dominate the meeting. One trick I have learned for myself and often encouraged others to do is to delegate ownership of the meeting to someone other than the boss.   For example, the head of the department doesn’t necessarily need to hold the department meeting. There will most certainly be an agenda point in the meeting where the boss needs to pass on information about something to their employees but the rest of the agenda points and the chairperson of the meeting could and should be someone else.   Another little trick I use is that I try to avoid being the first person to voice an opinion. I frequently discover that if I keep my mouth shut other people will say the things that I was thinking of saying. If I feel the need I can simply say that “I agree with the groups consensus” or, ”I agree with Sally or Bob” without the need to repeat or “enrich” what has already been said.

5. Do you often feel frustrated when your employees ask too many questions or talk about issues too much?

Most managers have at times felt frustration that people ask so many questions and have a need to vent issues and decisions far too long. But we need to remember that people will not feel engaged and therefore not perform their best if they are not given time to process decisions or initiatives. As a manager, you have usually had a head start. You have often already had time to process your decisions or the decisions of your superiors before you introduce them to your employees. If you invest a little more time in this anchoring process in the beginning, you will discover that you more than make up for “lost” time later on due to higher levels of commitment from your people.

6. Do you find it easy to make quick decisions and often rely on your intuition?

As Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman pointed out in his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” it is easy to make quick decisions but quick decisions are frequently wrong. Good decisions require time, analysis and reflection.   First, ask yourself if you are the best person to make the decision. Managers who pride themselves on their quick intuitive decision-making ability often fail to realize the risks they are taking by not involving the right people in the process.   Do you have the most knowledge and insight into the problem?

If you are convinced that you are the best person to make the decision remember that decision making should be an intellectual process. Give yourself time to ask the right questions, to analyze the data and weigh different scenarios against each other. Intuitive decision-makers often inadvertently alienate the people around them. People can feel run-over and insignificant because their knowledge and perspectives were ignored in the decision process. Let’s face it, sometimes you might have to use your intuition to fill in a few gaps when you lack pertinent information but your intuition should not replace solid facts or be a substitute for doing your homework.

7. Do you believe it is important as a manager to take all necessary measures to minimize or eliminate risks in the organization?

In business, risk is not our enemy, it is our friend. Every business school student knows that the higher the risk the higher the return. Managers who see their roles as “risk-eliminators” run the risk of also being profit eliminators. Good managers understand that everyone in the organization should take risks every day. Sometimes these risks work out well and sometimes they don’t. Here is the place where I often see managers in my audiences turning red and hands starting to shoot up in the air with questions or comments. And I usually end up having to explain that I differentiate between taking risks and being stupid. Jumping out of an airplane with a parachute and the proper training is high risk but it also has a high return in the sense that it is extremely exciting. Jumping out of a plane with no training and no equipment is not risky, it is stupid. A risk is when there is a certain probability that things might go wrong. If there is a 100% probability that things will go bad that is not a risk. We can avoid stupidity by training our people and providing the right resources but then we need to give them room to take risks. Encourage people to take risks, learn from them and take new risks. Even to the point of celebrating failures.

These are just a few of the problems and solutions related to toxic bosses.   If you are one, there is hope. You can change your behaviors. If you have a toxic boss the prognosis is worse since the boss has to come to their own realization of the problem. It is very difficult for an employee do bring this awareness into a toxic boss’s consciousness.

You always have a choice.

You can accept the environment as it is,

you can change the environment, or

you can change environments.