As soon as the words ‘bad boss’ is mentioned most people start imagining pictures of a wicked person, a crook, a tyrant, a scheming backstabbing individual, a selfish ogre, etc. And the typical textbook definition of a bad boss is one who screams, threatens, intimidates, grabs credit, fires people, throttles people’s necks, and so on. While such gory imaginations could be true in a few cases, it’s not so in a large percentage of cases. Actually, it’s not necessary to be a wicked person at all to be called a bad boss. Ironically, a good-natured or normal person can also fall into the category of a bad boss without exhibiting any boorish behaviors. To understand how there are a few common mistakes good people do to slowly transform themselves into bad bosses.

Lack of Knowledge: A good person can become a manager of a department for various reasons, but may have no knowledge necessary to run the department. Often, many employees get promoted to stratospheric levels too fast, but without the required knowledge, maturity, or skills to run a bunch of diverse departments. And this is unavoidable in many cases as modern managers often have to swim in unchartered waters in today’s chaotic business world. However, this can become a catastrophe not only for the manager but also for all his peers and team members who look to him or her for guidance, help, or coaching. If managers lack the required knowledge and advisory skills to coach, mentor, and supervise their department, they can agitate their team members to death.

In addition to stressing their team members daily, managers will also stress themselves more as they will be unable to lead effectively. For example, a good person can be a car service supervisor, but can never effectively manage his mechanics if he himself doesn’t have some prior experience in servicing a car or at least a generous dose of the practical hardships of it. His lack of knowledge can often lead to conflicts as he may make unrealistic demands on his mechanics, commit to impractical requests by customers, overload his mechanics, etc. Soon it will become an ego conflict between the ‘Knowledgeable and the Clueless.’

Avoiding learning: Understandably, a manager cannot be expected to have accurate knowledge from day one. To gain knowledge one must get into the deep water to understand the nitty-gritty of a new department's work, irrespective of their earlier experience. And no matter which department you manage there will be some amount of new learning every day to keep abreast of the latest trends and happenings related to that particular industry. But too many managers avoid doing this and don’t make any effort to learn the work hands-on or at least an essential percentage of it. They never bother to understand the ‘Nuts and bolts’ or roll up their sleeves to get involved.

Instead, they run their departments from a high level by viewing the world through status reports, metrics, statistical gymnastics, asking tough questions, etc., and soon become an object of ridicule. Very soon, this will lead to problems like inaccurate estimation, procrastination, unable to take independent decisions, workload issues, staff shortages, endless meetings, email wars, improper budgeting, and various daily conflicts. By refusing to learn or get involved they distance themselves from understanding any practical issues and difficulties of a department. Instead of being in a position of confidently saying, ‘Let me show you how or this is how you do it,’ they will start covering their lack of knowledge through devious means as they become insecure and incompetent. Obviously, that means entering into dirty waters like indulging in cheap politics, surrounding themselves with yes-men/women, shooting the messenger, and finding scapegoats.

Unable to shield their team: Often, for many managers, maintaining the status of a good and diplomatic person who will not antagonize customers and clients becomes more important than being right. So, they may not be able to shield their team from hostile situations, unfair accusations, or demands. They will start saying yes to every demand and put their team members in trouble or excessive workloads. Also, they cannot take the heat for their team when required. Very soon team members will stop going to them for help like a certain Jeff Rich, the CEO of ACS says, ‘I think the day that your people stop bringing their problems to you is the day you stop leading. They’ve either concluded that you don’t care about their problems or that you cannot help them. And leaders have to be in a position to help.’ For example, continuing the example of a mechanic, he will often not be able to shield his mechanics from aggressive and impatient customers who pressurize them with unreasonable demands, invent faults, or expect unrealistic services.

Distorted view: Customers and clients don’t appreciate a plain exhibition of good nature. Just because a person is good, customers will not take things easily or dilute their demands. They need value for their money, solutions, answers, guidance, etc., for their problems. And if a person cannot provide that, he or she automatically becomes a bad manager. Good nature and lots of smiles cannot be used as a shield for delivering bad results.

For example, will you go to a doctor who is very friendly, but is unable to diagnose your fever or prescribe the right medicines? Will junior surgeons depend on a friendly senior surgeon who cannot teach or oversee complicated and delicate surgeries? Would you go to a lawyer who talks well but gives you bad legal advice? Would you go to or recommend a tax consultant who talks well but can’t give you proper tax advice? Similarly, a good-natured person who is unable to help customers, clients, and team members can get into trouble by being branded as a bad manager as their credibility will take a nosedive.

Finally, we can conclude this article with a quote from Thomas Arnold, ‘Real knowledge, like everything else of value, is not to be obtained easily. It must be worked for, studied for, thought for, and, more than all must be prayed for.’

✅ Thanks for reading. If you wish to publish this article in your Company Newsletter, Intranet, Training Material, or Website please contact me at thejendra@yahoo.com. See you soon ✅

~ 🤵 About the Author - Thejendra Sreenivas was a Technology Manager in the IT industry for nearly 30 years. He is now an Author and Book Publishing Coach and helps authors to Self-Publish their books Worldwide on Amazon and Non-Amazon retailers. He has written 30+ books on various topics. Visit his online cave - www.thejendra.com for more details.

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