GOOD BOSS BAD BOSS: SQUELCH YOUR INNER BOSSHOLE

GOOD BOSS BAD BOSS

How to be the Best… and Learn from the Worst

ROBERT I SUTTON, PhD

SECTION II

WHAT THE BEST BOSSES DO

 

CHAPTER 8

SQUELCH YOUR INNER BOSSHOLE

Common features of bosses’ job – power, performance pressure, and exhaustion – provoke bosses to leave followers feeling disrespected, emotionally damaged, and de-energized.  Bosses are often clueless to how followers interpret their moves.  You likely won’t recognize episodes when you’ve been a temporary bosshole.

You can’t be a great boss if you don’t keep your inner jerk in check.  Bossholes make people sick.  Bossholes suffer self-inflicted wounds.

Causes And Cure For The Common Bosshole:

1.       Toxic Tandem and Power Poisoning

There are plenty empathic and civilized bosses.  But there is strong evidence that power turns people into insensitive jerks who are oblivious to subordinates needs and actions.  This toxic tandem means that bosses are often oblivious to the moves they make that piss off and hurt followers.  There are often times when the toxic tandem causes bosses to become so self-absorbed that they treat underlings as if they are invisible.

Bosses often see power poisoning in others, but rarely in themselves.  As a boss you need trusted advisors, mentors, and followers who feel safe telling you when you’ve been a schmuck.

2.       Extreme Performance Pressure

Although all bosses risk focusing on performance too much and humanity too little, this balance gets especially out of whack when performance pressure becomes intense.  Time pressure causes people to become especially insensitive to others.  If you are a boss with a history of treating followers with dignity and have built up a lot of ‘love points’, your people will probabaly forgive you if you get nasty now and then.

3.       Sleep Deprivation, Heat, And Other Bodily Sources Of Bad Moods

Lack of sleep causes people to make lousy decisions and turns them into impatient jerks.  When people are physically hot, they turn mean.  Heat is uncomfortable which makes people grumpy and thus see things (and other people) in a more negative light.

4.       Nasty Role Models

Scott Berkun, author: one reason bosses become asshole is in trying to emulate someone more powerful than themselves, they didn’t separate the good qualities from the bad and copied it all..

5.       Asshole-infested workplaces

Even bosses who aren’t bred or led by assholes turn mean when they are knee-deep in demeaning colleagues and customers.  Emotions are remarkably contagious.  When people are surround by jerks, they usually mimic such behavior and don’t realize they are doing so.

Bosses who treat their people like dirt usually do more harm than good, even when they act with the best of intentions.

TO BE CONTINUED....