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Killer Bosses are Worse than Killer Bees

Guest post by: Dr. Maynard Brusman

Article Overview: Most of us can tell horror stories about the boss from hell. He or she might have been a micro-manager or so work-driven that employees didn't have a life. The boss was unhappy and took out his/her frustration on employees. Bad bosses can be more destructive than those nasty "Killer Bees".

Killer Bosses are Worse than Killer Bees

Most of us can tell horror stories about the boss from hell. He or she might have been a micro-manager or so work-driven that employees didn't have a life. The boss was unhappy and took out his/her frustration on employees. Bad bosses can be more destructive than those nasty "Killer Bees".

Killer Bosses

Stanford University management professor Robert I. Sutton, PhD, author of the New York Times bestseller The No Asshole Rule, knows about bosses. He has received thousands of emails about the bad ones since the 2007 publication of that title. In his most recent book, Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best...and Learn from the Worst (Business Plus, 2010) Sutton focuses on what it takes to be a better boss.

Bosses also have bosses. In the United States alone, their ranks have swelled to an estimated 21-38 million. Even CEOs answer to boards of directors and shareholders.

Myriad studies prove the link between a boss's effectiveness and team performance. Having a good boss may also increase longevity: A Swedish study that followed 3,122 men for 10 years found that those with the best bosses (considerate, clear and proactive change agents) suffered fewer heart attacks than did those with bad bosses. Study participants who stayed with good bosses for 4 years had at least a 39 percent lower heart-attack risk, according to coauthor Anna Nyberg, PhD.

Personality-assessment specialist Robert Hogan, PhD, researched studies of diverse workers conducted in 1948, 1958, 1968 and 1998 in cities like Baltimore, London, Seattle and Honolulu. In his meta-analysis of postal workers, milk-truck drivers, schoolteachers and other members of the labor force, 75 percent reported that dealing with their immediate supervisor was the most stressful part of the job.

Over the last 30 years, Gallup surveys of more than 100,000 employees in 2,500 diverse businesses have revealed that one's immediate boss has far more impact on engagement and performance than any other factor. A 2007 Gallup survey of U.S. employees found that 24 percent would fire their bosses if given the chance.

Indeed, 56 percent of disengaged employees cite bad bosses as a primary reason for their unhappiness. People don't quit their jobs; they quit bad bosses.

Good bosses create employee satisfaction that leads to retention, performance, productivity and profitability. How you treat your direct reports creates a ripple effect that travels down and across your company's hierarchy, ultimately shaping its culture and performance.

A study of 66 of the fastest-growing new U.S. firms shows that the best CEOs blend a top-down directive approach with a participative shared-leadership approach when managing their top teams.

Are you working in a professional services firm or other organization where executive coaches provide leadership development for emotionally intelligent leaders? Does your organization provide executive coaching to help leaders become better bosses? Leaders with highly developed executive presence tap into their emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills to fully engage employees and customers.

One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is "What are the qualities of a great boss where I work?" Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching to develop great bosses.

Working with a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-I, CPI 260 and Denison Culture Survey can help you create a culture where all employees are fully engaged. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and inspires people to become fully engaged with the vision, mission and strategy of your company or law firm.

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Article Tags: bad bosses, boss, executive coachingmicromanager, horror stories, killer bees



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Board / Card games for entrepreneurs? - Ok so this one is a little off topic but I'm curious to find out your thoughts: What are your favorite board and card games? My wife and I enjoy playing games together and are always on the hunt for new ones. There's a great cafe in Toronto called Snakes & Lattes which has over 2,000 games to play while you relax with friends and have a drink (we actually just came back and usually go every couple of weeks). Three of our favorites right now are: * Ticket to Ride * Pandemic * Killer Bunnies Are you into board and card games? Which are your favorites?
OT: TV Shows Teaching Inappropriate Behavior - I just saw a commercial a few minutes ago for a tv show called Queen Bees. Five or six beautiful young women, all full of themselves, saying stuff like, "I'm going to get what I want and if you get in my way I'll hurt you." Every single woman's comment was in that vein - promising violence to anyone who stood in the way of their ambition... to be some sort of "diva." Then there was a commercial for a show called "Be Diddy's Assistant" which showed some woman attacking and hitting a guy in a chair... Then we get Dragon's Den from England... entrepreneurs come to a group of people and make their pitch, and most of them get insulted and ridiculed and tossed aside (again, based on the commercials I've seen - never watched it and never will) And then there's the shows I've heard discussed here.. The Apprentice, etc., all teaching people that violence and sneaking around and in-your-face arrogance is acceptable behavior. And I find it very frightening! Kids are vicious enough just as they are, without being inculcated with this stuff so they grow up and start implementing it!
Fast food workers - [quote:jxsovz2s] so why do franchises treat their employees like "worker bees" (i.e. work them till they quit or die or at least wish for their own deaths)? [/quote:jxsovz2s] I think that if "worker bees" approach their job with the right attitude, they can accomplish much. There are plenty of other people at the restaurant, so one is able to meet and interact with lots of people, see their personalities, etc. which is good for evaluating employees when you're in a position to hire them yourself. I think the main fault with fast-food restaurants is that they have such a hard time getting employees that they'll take anyone they can get, and then they only give them a couple of hours training before they put them out on the floor. Worse, they put them on the floor during the rush hour, and pretty soon they're in the deep end and not having fun because they don't really know what they're doing, and their managers are snapping at them and the customers are snapping at them and they get so frustrated that they quit. I suppose there are people who can pick up things very quickly and those are the ones that stick around...but there is certainly a high turnover rate. I talked a bit about this a month or so ago, when I related my experiences at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, where it was a comedy of errors, with me having to wait 20 minutes for my food, and then [i:jxsovz2s]still [/i:jxsovz2s]getting the wrong order. (And not the first time I'd had problems at this restaurant.) I have nothing but respect for fast food workers, and if they do screw up, I feel that 90% of the time it's the fault of the managers who didn't train them properly. But I doubt if the managers screw up because they don't care - [i:jxsovz2s]they [/i:jxsovz2s]probably haven't been trained properly in how to train their workers!


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