No manager sets out to be the sort of boss who demoralizes their staff or makes people dread coming to work. And yet, given the number of people who report working for terrible managers, there are clearly loads of bad bosses out there.
Most bad bosses aren’t bad people. Rather, managing is a skill like any other, and too many managers don’t take the time to develop that skill. But if you’re in charge of people at work, it’s crucial to take a look at what kind of boss you are. Here are eight signs that things aren’t going as well as you might have thought.
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1. You hesitate to go on vacation because you worry that things will fall apart while you’re gone. If this rings true for you, one of the following is likely happening: you haven’t sufficiently trained your staff, you haven’t delegated a reasonable amount of responsibility to people, you don’t trust people to be the competent professionals they presumably are or you haven’t addressed performance problems on your team.
2. You take it personally when people quit. Employees move on from jobs; that’s a normal part of doing business. But some managers see resignations as personal betrayals and get angry or hurt when people leave. This is incredibly unsettling to other staff members who see it, and who then have to worry about the reaction they’ll get when it’s their turn to move on. Yes, it’s disappointing when a good employee leaves — which is why good bosses work to keep people on board before anyone quits — but the only appropriate response is to thank the person for their work and wish them well in their new job.
3. Sometimes you yell at your staff. Yelling at an employee is never OK. It’s demeaning to the employee (who, because of the power dynamics in the relationship, might feel they have to sit there and take it), it creates an environment of fear for everyone who witnesses it and it will make good people not want to work for you. Ironically, it will also diminish your authority, because you’ll come across as out of control and not able to get things done any other way.
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4. You often end up taking work over from your staff so that it gets done correctly. If you delegate work to a staff member, you should invest the time to ensure the person is set up to complete it successfully. That means thoroughly thinking through beforehand what the final product should look like so you can convey that when assigning it; checking in along the way so that you can spot any needed course corrections; and coaching and giving feedback where you see that it’s needed. If you’re regularly taking work back from your staff because you don’t trust it will be done well enough otherwise, you’re either not doing those earlier steps well enough (or at all), or there’s a performance issue that you need to address.
5. You avoid giving critical feedback because you don’t want to make anyone feel bad. While this might stem from a well-intentioned place, it’s actually a huge disservice to your employees. People deserve to know how they could be doing their jobs better, especially if over time it could end up impacting their project assignments, raises, performance evaluations or advancement opportunities — or even just their reputations. Plus, it means that problems often fester, and eventually become so serious that the manager finally speaks up … at which point things have become much worse than if the manager had said something early on.
On the other end of that spectrum …
6. The last time you gave someone positive feedback was weeks ago. You should be giving positive feedback all the time — because if you have a team of strong performers, you should be seeing praiseworthy things from them on a regular basis. If your employees consistently do a good job but rarely hear about it, they’re likely to feel unappreciated and wonder why no one notices their achievements. And if you’re giving any critical feedback at all, good employees need to be hearing positive feedback to balance that out.
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7. You boast about working around the clock and rarely taking a sick day. If that’s what you’re modeling for your team, they’re almost certainly picking up the message that you expect the same from them. And that’s not a good thing, because it will lead to burnout, resentment and good people leaving for more sustainable work environments.
8. You think people should be grateful to have a job. Managers who think this way generally use it as a reason to treat people poorly, and expect they should accept that without any pushback. But you’re not doing your employees a favor by employing them; you’re in a mutually beneficial business relationship. And if you have high-performing staff members, they likely have plenty of other options — and will take them if you treat them without respect and appreciation.
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8 Signs You’re a Bad Boss originally appeared on usnews.com
