Work Matters

Category: Bosses

  • 11 Signs You’re A Bad Boss: From AMEX OPEN Forum


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    Thanks to Guy Kawasaki and Matthew May, two posts have recently appeared at the American Express blog for small business, OPEN Forum.  Matt describes these as "yin and yang" posts because the first, by him, was a review and discussion called "How to be a Good Boss" (that cool sign above kicks off his post).  That was followed with an opposing post that I wrote (with a lot of guidance, coaching, and editing from Guy — he  amazes me with his ability to frame things and use language so that ideas are sound, fun, and sticky) on "The Top 11 Signs that You're a Bad Boss."  Here is a reprint of that post for readers of Work Matters:

    The
    most crucial test of a boss is self-awareness. The best bosses are in
    tune with how the little things they say and do impact people, and they
    are adept at adjusting to bolster both performance and dignity. Several
    studies, including one by the College Board, suggest that the more
    incompetent a boss is, the more out of touch he or she is likely to be. 

     

    Unfortunately,
    too many bosses think they are in tune with their employees, but live
    in a fool’s paradise. If you’re a boss, you should review this list of
    the top eleven attitudes to figure out if you’re acting like a bad boss.

     

    1.    “I am going to get mine.” Let’s face it, you deserve to get more goodies and get them first. After all, without you, your underlings would be nowhere.

     

    2.      Ride them hard. You keep a close eye on your people because, otherwise, they screw around and screw-up.

     

    3.      All transmission and no reception.
    You pretend to listen to others somtimes; but you are really just
    “reloading,” thinking of the brilliant thing you are going to say next.

     

    4.      No thanks.
    You don’t baby your employees with all that insincere manners crap.
    Saying “please” and “thank you” is overrated, wastes a lot of time, and
    makes you look like you kissing-up to your subordinates.

     

    5.      Do it right or don’t do it. When your people make mistakes, you make sure they pay a steep price.

     

    6.      Mistakes were made, but not by me.
    You are so good that you rarely mess-up. Anyway, a smart boss doesn’t
    display ignorance, admit mistakes, or apologize – that’s what doormats
    and wimps do.

     

    7.      Credit hog. After all, when your people do something good, it is because of you.

     

    8.      Kiss up or shut-up. You despise underlings who challenge your ideas and point out your mistakes.

     

    9.      Star lover.
    You focus your energy on hiring, grooming, and encouraging your very
    best employees. After all, the B players are far less important and a
    lot easier to replace.

     

    10.   Implementation is for the little people.
    Your job is to develop and talk about big ideas, not to waste time
    thinking about all the little steps required to make them happen.

     

    11.   I don’t how it feels to be you and I don’t care. It’s not my job to hold your hand or understand what it feels like to work for me. I am your boss, not your mommy or daddy.

     

    If you’re an employee with a boss, you should take my survey called the BRASS (Boss Reality Assessment Survey System).
    It will help you determine if your work for a bad boss. Or, as Guy
    Kawasaki likes to put it, if you work for a certified brasshole.

    P.S. As always, let me know what you think — what did I miss? What strikes you as especially important — or wrong?

  • Being a Good Boss is Pretty Damn Hard: Reflections on Publication Day

    Today, September 7th, is the official publication day of Good Boss, Bad Boss.  I've got an hour or so before I need to run to the airport, and find myself looking back on what I've learned from writing the book, talking to people since the book was finished some months back, and all the blogging and comments (especially here at Work Matters and over at HBR Online where I have been developing my list of 12 Things Good Bosses Believe).

    The thing I've been fretting over most lately is how hard it is to be a good boss — the job is never done, it is amazingly easy to screw-up, and wielding power over others makes it all even harder because you are being watched so closely (and are prone to tuning-out your followers — the other half of the toxic tandem).  Yet, despite all these hurdles, the best evidence shows that many, if not most, people find their bosses to be competent and compassionate.  And most bosses I know work extremely hard and are dedicated to improving their skills.  Indeed, one of my main motivations for writing Good Boss, Bad Boss was that so many of the managers and executives who I spoke with and who wrote me in response to The No Asshole Rule were so concerned about becoming better at practicing their difficult craft.

    When I think of the bosses that I admire and want to be around versus those that I despise and want to avoid if at all possible, the main factor is not their skill at the moment.  Rather, it is whether or not they care and are working on core questions like:

    1. What does it feel like to work for me? 

    2. How can get more "in tune" with my followers, peers, bosses, customers, and other people who I deal with?

    3. What are my weaknesses and strengths?  What can I do to attenuate my weaknesses — what do I need to learn and who can I work with to best offset my drawbacks and blind spots?

    In contrast, people who are arrogant and suffering power poisoning — and never admit their weaknesses, let alone try to overcome or dampen them — are in my view, the worst of the worst, regardless of past accomplishments  Yes, as I emphasize on this blog and in Chapter 2, the best bosses need to act like they are in charge, to instill confidence in others and themselves.  But the bosses I want to be around  (and that I believe will triumph in the long run) have the attitude of wisdom, or as rocker Tom Petty put it, are confident but not really sure.

    That's what I am thinking about; I would be curious to hear your perspective on the kinds of bosses you want to be and be around.

  • Good Boss, Bad Boss Speeches in September

    Susan Angel Devil

    As Good Boss, Bad Boss is officially published this month — in fact, today is the official publication day — I am doing quite a few speeches on the book. Most are "closed," but three are open to the public, as indicated below.  I hope to see you at one of these events:

    September 8th: Disney Studios (Burbank, CA)

    September 8th: IDEO (Palo Alto, CA)

    September 9th: Pixar  (Emeryville, CA)

    September 10th: Google (Mountain View, CA)

    September 16th: Center for Corporate Innovation (Boston, MA)

    September 17th: Leading Strategic Execution (Stanford Executive Program, requires enrollment)

    September 20th: Commonwealth Club, San Francisco (Open to the public, admission is $20 and 7$ for students, sign up online)

    September 23: Learning Essence (Mexico City, Mexico).

    September 29th: Amazon (Seattle, WA).

    September 30th: Commonwealth Club, Silicon Valley, noon to 1pm (Santa Clara, CA. Open to the public, admission is $20; sign-up online)

    September 30th, Xerox PARC Forum (Palo Alto, CA, 6:00 PM.  Free and open to the public)

    3 P.S. Those beautiful angel and devil chairs at the top of the post above are by Susan Kare , who did them (and the rest of the design) for my Good Boss, Bad Boss PowerPoint deck, and who also consulted on the cover design for the book.  Susan has done many fantastic designs and is most famous for designing many of the icons on the original Macintosh, including the trash can and that frowning smiling face that Macs made when they booted.
    Susan-kare2

  • Luis Urzua and the Trapped Miners: A Good Boss, Performance, and Humanity

    I first wrote this post on September 6th.  I am highlighting it today to celebrate the rescue and to show some of the nuances of Luis Urzua's impressive leadership.

    When people ask me for one sentence summary of a great boss, I answer "He or she promotes both performance and humanity, and strikes a healthy balance between the two when trade-offs are necessary."   In Good Boss, Bad Boss, I quote a cool 2008 American Psychologist article by Mark Van Vugt, Robert Hogan, and Robert Kaiser who, after examining descriptions of admired and effective leaders in settings ranging from ancient human tribes to modern corporations and sports teams, conclude the best leaders are both "competent and benevolent."

    In light of this perspective, I am intrigued with reports (see here and here, for example) about 54 year-old foreman Luis Urzua and the impressive steps he is taking to oversee, organize, protect, and tend to the emotional needs of the 33 men trapped in the mine in Chile — a group that faces months trapped underground.  Urzua kept the men alive by immediately rationing food (two spoonfuls of tuna and a glass of milk every 48 hours for each man), which enabled them to survive and to avoid dysfunctional conflict until food started arriving through a small hole drilled be rescuers — a crucial move because none the miners had run out of food 48 hours before despite the rationing.  Uruza has organized the underground space (he is a skilled topographer) into a work area, sleeping facility, and so on, and is keeping the men on 12 hour shifts by using the headlights of trucks in the mine to simulate daylight.  He not only needs to keep the group healthy and focused to survive the ordeal, he  needs to stay in control because, under some rescue scenarios, the men will need to remove many tons of rocks to help with their own rescue operations.

    I was also taken with reports about the "leadership team" that has emerged.  The New York Times tells us that the oldest miner, 62 year-old Mario Gomez has "become the spiritual guide to his men, government officials said. He has organized a small subterranean chapel and is serving as unofficial aide to the psychologists working on the surface to cope with the miners' sadness and fear."  In addition, another miner, "Yonny Barrios, 50, the group's impromptu medical monitor. He is drawing on a six-month nursing course he took about 15 years ago to administer medicines and wellness tests that health officials are sending down through the 4-inch borehole and then analyzing in a laboratory on the surface."

    This case is so striking to me because Urzua and his team have taken such impressive action to tend to both the performance and human needs of the group — the blend of their competence and compassion is striking.  Moreover, if I go through the mindset of the best bosses discussed in the opening chapter of Good Boss, Bad Boss, the key elements are all there:

    1. The men are being pushed by their leaders (especially Urzua) hard enough to maintain their discipline and order, but not so hard as to be overwhelmed (consistent with the notion that the best bosses strive to be perfectly assertive).

    2. Uruza is showing extreme grit; in particular, a hallmark of gritty leaders is they treat life as marathon rather than a sprint,

    3.  In related fashion, Uruza and his team — and their advisers above — are treating this ordeal as a small wins situation, where the final goal of escape (and not getting overwhelmed by this big hairy goal) depends on one tiny victory after another.

    4. Uruza is clearly not suffering from detachment or power poisoning, as he is hyper-aware of how the large and small things he does affect the miners' moods, actions, and ability to survive; and he is not taking more goodies for himself than others.

    5. There is no doubt that he "has his people's backs," that he will do whatever is possible to protect them.  One way that good leaders protect their people is by limiting outside intrusion, and you could see this mindset when he urged experts to keep the medical conference call short because "We have lots of work to do."

    This is clearly an extreme situation, and you could argue that parts of it don't transfer well to the mundane organizational settings where most us work.  But I do think that extreme situations sometimes bring into focus what human groups need to thrive in terms of both performance and well-being, and what the best leaders do to help make that happen.  Indeed, I gleaned the five elements of the mindset of great bosses — being just assertive enough, grit, small wins, avoiding power poisoning (and being aware that followers are watching the boss very closely), having people's backs largely from research and cases in ordinary and mundane settings.

    P.S. For a take on how the miners can best survive this ordeal, check out this New York Times piece by psychiatrist Nick Kanas. 

     

  • New Research: There Are A LOT Of Good Bosses Out There

     
    AngelChair In the introduction to Good Boss, Bad Boss, I emphasize that — following an inspiring comment from my wife, Marina, who has worked in numerous management positions — my motivation for writing it was to describe the moods and moves of the best bosses.  Or as Marina put it, to draw on the best evidence and cases I could find to show "what that looks like."  I sometimes worry that in talking about bossholes, brassholes, and assholes that I emphasize  bad bosses too much.  I think it is important to keep in mind that most bosses want to be both competent and caring, and there are a lot of good bosses out there who are aiming to hone their craft.  Those are the people that I had in mind when I wrote the book — not so much the losers and jerks.

    Toward the end, a new study came out today that reinforces this positive spirit.  It is based on a nice random probability sample of Americans by StrategyOne, which suggests that most working Americans have good bosses.  In this survey, over 80% of respondents reported that they felt respected by their bosses and that their bosses respect their work.  There was evidence that some people out there fear their bosses, as 26% feared being fired by their bosses if they took a day off from work.   On the whole, however, this survey paints a picture of people who are generally satisfied with their work, bosses, and companies — although I given all that, I found it strange that 56% would be at least somewhat interested in leaving for a job with the same compensation elsewhere. Perhaps that was explained in part by the general job insecurity out there, which you see in this survey as well, with 44% reporting that they have had their pay cut in the last couple years and 46% reporting being concerned about losing their jobs. 

    To return to my main point, however, I think it is important — as Labor Day weekend in the U.S. is starting — to take some pride in the quality of most of the 20 million or so bosses in our country (estimates run as high 38 million bosses), and to remember that while work can be a source of dissatisfaction and distress, and bad bosses do suck, that most of the 90% of us in the workforce who have bosses are satisfied with these immediate superiors and, more important than that, feel respected by them.  I would also add that, equally heartening, is that most bosses I know are not only competent, most devote considerable energy to getting better at their jobs.  As I said at the outset, I wrote Good Boss, Bad Boss in hopes it would be of some help to all the hard working bosses out there strive to keep honing their difficult craft.

  • Is Your Boss A Certified Brasshole? Take The BRASS And Find Out

    Frequent readers of this blog know that one of the most successful tools, or if you prefer, PR gimmicks, we did for The No Asshole Rule was an online quiz called the ARSE, the Asshole Rating Self-Exam.  This is a 24 item quiz to determine if you are a certified asshole.  Approximately 250,000 people have completed it so far, and I still have people come up to (or email me) and say things like "I scored a 2, I am very good" or "I got a 9, I am borderline, watch out."  The items on ARSE appeared in book, but the name was added by Guy Kawasaki and he recruited the wonderful folks at Electric Pulp to develop an online version.

    DevilChair In the spirit of the ARSE — and once again with some great coaching from Guy– I have developed the BRASS, the Boss Reality Assessment Survey System (I know it is dumb spelled out, in fact if you have a better idea, let me know… one suggestion that I kind of liked was "Bob's Roughly Accurate Superior Survey").  The 20 items on the BRASS draw on major themes from Good Boss, Bad Boss, which are used to rate your boss on items including:

    Is so pushy and overbearing that it drives us nuts

    Lacks confidence in his or her ability to lead others

    Doesn't have our backs, won't go to bat for us, and doesn't protect us from the idiocy that rains down from on high

    Leaves me feeling drained and de-energized after even a short conversation.

    Is a chronic credit hog.AngelChair

    The higher the score, the worse your boss.  If your boss is really bad, if he or she scores "true" on 15 or more items like these, then you have the misfortune of working for a certified brasshole. And if your boss scores below five, my advice is that you better treat him or her right, because one like that is hard to find! 

  • What Are Signs That Your Boss Cares About You?

    My post on the power of bosses who take a moment to offer a simple "thanks" to people got me thinking about the more general question of little signs that your boss cares for you.  Certainly, as my recent HBR article shows, when a boss "has your back" that is sign that he or she cares about you.  But when I made my top 10 list, I had the distinct feeling that I was leaving out a lot of important stuff.  So I guess this is a form of open source PR.  To get the conversation started, here are are 10 signs that your boss really really cares about you, based largely on Good Boss, Bad Boss:

    1. REALLY listens to what you say, doesn't just pretend.

    2. Is careful to give you as much — or even more — credit than you deserve.

    3. Sticks-up for you behind your back.

    4.  Takes care not to embarrass you.

    5.  Apologizes sincerely and completely when he or she does something that upsets or hurts you.

    6. Goes out of his or her way to make it easier for you to mesh the challenges in your personal life with your job.

    7. Is respectful of your time.

    8. Takes time to learn your quirks and idiosyncrasies — and accommodates them within in reason.

    9. Goes the extra mile to make sure that you succeed at your job and keep developing skills.

    10. Doesn't bullshit you about your weaknesses or screw-ups — tells you the truth.

    This is just first draft.  What should I add?  What should I remove?  Do you have any stories along these lines?   I look forward to your comments and I will revise and extend the list after hearing your ideas and comments.

  • The Boss as Human Shield: Protect People from Your Own Worst Instincts Too

    Boring-meeting-largethumb1613679

    Over at HBR online today, one of the articles they are featuring is my piece on The Boss as Human Shield.  One point the article makes, and that I emphasize in Good Boss, Bad Boss , is that your job as a boss isn't just to protect employees from other idiots — it is also to protect them your own idiocy.  At or near the top of the list are bad meetings, too many meetings, and meetings that run too long.  The picture above of a boring meeting made me laugh and and made me think.  If the people at the meetings you run look like that, you might want to think about having fewer meetings and changing how the are done (see the example here and here of an all-hands meeting at Timbuk2 that our students at the d.school helped fix.. there were people sleeping at the meeting too before it was changed).

    Certainly, meetings are sometimes necessary, but are often ran badly.  What do you do to hold just the right number of meetings and to run them effectively? 

  • It Isn’t Just a Myth: A Little Thanks Goes a Long Way

    The approach that I take to giving advice in Good Boss, Bad Boss and in everything else I write is to try to be as evidence-based as possible.  But I also realize that the academic literature does not always map neatly onto the demands and needs of bosses and others in organizations.  So I also offer logical or theory-based advice that seems like it is likely to be supported by research — even if that research has not yet been done or I don't know about it.  Although most assertions in Good Boss, Bad Boss are grounded directly in evidence from peer reviewed studies, my arguments about the value of saying "thanks" were only indirectly grounded in research on influence, especially on the norm of reciprocity.  At least they were it wasn't until I learned of this study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology from co-author Adam Grant.  Here is what I wrote at the end of Chapter 3, which focuses on wisdom:

    Wise
    bosses don’t just display empathy, compassion, and appreciation through
    dramatic and memorable gestures, as Dean Plummer did for me.  They convey
    it through tiny and seemingly trivial gestures. As we’ve seen, effective bosses
    work their magic by piling up one small win after another – and realizing that
    followers are watching their every move.   A host of renowned bosses
    talk about the importance of thanking people, about the power of this small
    gesture and how failure to express appreciation to people who are working their
    tails off is a sign of disrespect.  The late Robert Townsend, former CEO
    of Avis and author of     Up the Organization, defined “Thanks” as “A really
    neglected form of compensation.”  Max DePree, former CEO of furniture
    giant Herman Miller, described saying “thank you” as among a leader’s primary
    jobs. 

    I thought all this talk about something so small and so obvious was
    overblown until a professor from another school told me about a trip he took
    with his university president to China.  The logistics of the trip were
    difficult, as it was a traveling road show where transportation, hotel
    accommodations, meetings, and hundreds of other little details, had to be
    orchestrated.  The staff traveling with the group worked 12 to 16 hours
    day on these chores and did a magnificent job. Yet my colleague reported that,
    even though the president made many requests of the staff during the trip, he
    never once thanked them.  This lack of gratitude was demoralizing, as they
    catered to his every whim but weren’t otherwise noticed or appreciated.

    This perspective on the power of simple expressions of appreciation is bolstered by a series of four intertwined studies by Adam Grant and Francesca Gino in a paper called "A Little Thanks Goes A long Way: Explaining Why Gratitude Expressions Motivate Prosocial Behavior."  These researchers found, in each study (all are randomized experiments with control and treatment conditions), that a simple expression of thanks by someone in authority led people to be more likely to volunteer to do extra work. Their research shows that this happens because the simple act of being thanked makes be feel more valued — and in some of these studies — it also increased peoples' feelings of self-efficacy (essentially, the perception that they were making a bigger impact on the world around them).

    I was especially interested in the study with university fund raisers.  The simple act of having a boss come by and offer a public thanks to one group, and but not the other, really packed a wallop.  These fundraisers were paid a fixed salary, so Grant and Gino compared the number of phone calls made be each fundraiser before and after the "thank you" intervention.  The results were pretty impressive, as while there was no change in the average number of calls made by the group that was not offered thanks, the folks who heard a warm two sentence thank you from a boss made an average of about 50% more calls during the subsequent week.

    To return to the argument in Good Boss, Bad Boss, it appears we have some new evidence, as Robert Townsend put it, that "Thanks" is "A really neglected form of compensation." It is also a remarkably cheap form of compensation. 

  • Managing Leadership: An Unappreciated Gem

    Jim Stroup's Managing Leadership took me by surprise.  I got in the mail last week and was intending to glance at it for a few minutes, but I am now hooked.  I also felt compelled to write an Amazon review because this is a book that needs more attention.  Too many leadership books are either unrealistic, full of nonsense, or
    downright boring or useless. Jim Stroup has somehow managed to
    transcend these hazards to provide us with one of rare compelling,
    inspiring, and relentlessly useful book on the topic. I was especially
    struck with his contrasts and deep exploration of leadership from the
    rear, leadership from the rear, and leadership from within. This book has been around since 2004 and and is an
    unappreciated gem. I wish I had read it earlier, especially when I was writing Good Boss, Bad Boss,but I am glad that I did
    now. I just added it to my list of favorite boss books.