Joanna Higgins, the formidable editor of BNET, pointed out that my blog on the “four sins the boss wouldn’t forgive” only looked at one side of the team/boss contract. As ever, she was right. We all have a psychological, if not legal, contract with our boss. The contract may not be in writing, but if it is broken we are likely to leave: people leave their boss as much as they leave their firm.
So if we know the sins that a boss won’t forgive, what are the sins which the staff will not forgive the boss for? Here are the seven deadliest sins of bosses who I have had the misfortune to work for:
- Disloyalty. Some bosses think that loyalty is a one way street: “If you don’t do what you’re told, you’re not a team player”. Wrong. Loyalty is a two way street. No one wants to work for a boss they do not trust.
- Weakness. Bosses who can not deliver on promises, can not stand up for the team, can not get enough resources and lack political clout are a waste of space.
- Inconsistency. Constant changing of direction means the team works twice as hard and spends half its time trying to double guess what the boss will think next.
- Micro managing. A great way of showing that you do not trust your team. It undermines their self-belief and stops them developing. It means team members worry more about the next update to the boss than they spend on the real work.
- Delegating the routine rubbish and all the blame if anything goes wrong. This is a good way of demoralising the team and making sure that they never learn, grow or develop.
- Myopic vision. There are too many bosses who spend their whole time looking upwards and managing their own career, and have no interest in looking after the interests and careers of their team. If you don’t care for the team, the team will not care for you. Simple.
- Puffery. Like the bosses who delegate the blame, these ones are very keen to take all the praise for themselves. If they give any praise to the team it will be very “one minute manager”, condescending type praise.
In truth, most team members learn to be fairly tolerant of bosses. They can forgive bad mistakes, bad jokes, bad clothes and the occasional bad hair day. And if you turn the seven deadly sins around you have the recipe for a pretty good boss. Who would not want to work with a boss who is loyal, delivers on promises, is clear and consistent, trusts the team, delegates interesting work, cares for the team and is generous in praise?
There are plenty of other creative ways in which bosses can make life hell for staff. You can share your experiences and insights below.
