About a year ago, Guy Kawasaki and I worked with the folks at LinkedIn to develop a ten-point checklist to help people detect whether their future boss is likely to be an asshole. — things to look for during the interview process and when doing background checks on a future employer and company. I went back and look at this list and realized that, although it emphasizes asshole bosses, that many of these are also more general warning signs that your future boss isn't just a jerk, but is more broadly a crummy manager.
With so many people looking for new jobs, and almost every organization I know reorganizing, there are a lot of people looking for new bosses now or, as a result of a reorganization, considering multiple internal offers for a new job with a new boss. I thought it was a good time to reprint the list. Note that this is also in Guy's new book Reality Check, with a host of other insights on this challenge (See Chapter 87).
As I wrote earlier on this blog, "Discovering the answers to these questions before you take a job can save you a lot of heartache."
Here is our 10 point checklist. Check-off each one that applies to your future boss.
___1. Kisses-up and kicks-down:
“How does the prospective boss respond to feedback from people higher
in rank and lower in rank?” “Can you provide examples from experience?”
One characteristic of certified assholes is that they tend to demean
those who are less powerful while brown-nosing their superiors.
___2. Can’t take it:
“Does the prospective boss accept criticism or blame when the going
gets tough?” Be wary of people who constantly dish out criticism but
can’t take a healthy dose themselves.
___3. Short fuse:
“In what situations have you seen the prospective boss lose his
temper?” Sometimes anger is justified or even effective when used
sparingly, but someone who “shoots-the-messenger” too often can breed a
climate of fear in the workplace. Are co-workers scared of getting in
an elevator with this person?
___4. Bad credit:
“Which style best describes the prospective boss: gives out gratuitous
credit, assigns credit where credit is due, or believes everyone should
be their own champion?” This question opens the door to discuss whether
or not someone tends to take a lot of credit while not recognizing the
work of his or her team.
___5. Canker sore:
“What do past collaborators say about working with the prospective
boss?” Assholes usually have a history of infecting teams with nasty
and dysfunctional conflict. The world seems willing to tolerate
talented assholes, but that doesn’t mean you have to.
___6. Flamer:
What kind of email sender is the prospective boss? Most assholes cannot
contain themselves when it comes to email: flaming people,
carbon-copying the world, blind carbon copying to cover his own
buttocks. Email etiquette is a window into one’s soul.
___7. Downer:
“What types of people find it difficult to work with the prospective
boss? What type of people seem to work very well with the prospective
boss?” Pay attention to responses that suggest “strong-willed” or
“self-motivated” people tend to work best with the prospective boss
because assholes tend to leave people around them feeling de-energized
and deflated.
___8. Card shark:
“Does the prospective boss share information for everyone’s benefit?” A
tendency to hold cards close to one’s chest—i.e., a reluctance to share
information—is a sign that this person treats co-workers as competitors
who must be defeated so he or she can get ahead.
___9. Army of one:
“Would people pick the prospective boss for their team?”
Sometimes there is upside to having an asshole on your team, but that
won’t matter if the coworkers refuse to work with that person. Use this
question to help determine if the benefit of having the prospective
boss on your team outweighs any asshole behaviors.
___10. Open architecture: “How would the prospective boss respond if a copy of The No Asshole Rule
Scoring:
If you checked 3 or more, then it sounds like your future boss is a borderline asshole.
If you checked 5 or more, he or she sounds like a certified asshole.
If you checked more than 7, you've got a flaming bosshole on your hands — and also someone who is incompetent in a host of other ways.
I would love to hear other tips about
what has helped you avoid taking a job with an asshole boss — or
other warning signs that you wish you would have noticed before going to work for a demeaning creep.
P.S. You can also use the Asshole Rating Self-Exam, or ARSE, to assess a future (or current boss) — just have the people you are interviewing about the future boss complete with that person in mind (rather than themselves).
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