Why Don’t You Know You Hired a Bad Manager?
Senior managers sometimes don’t know they have an unethical or incompetent manager, even though they know bad managers increase turnover, lower productivity, and hurt your reputation.
A Workgroup member and their co-workers suffered for years from a president with who was a toxic mix of mismanagement, neglect, and harassment. They filed a whistleblower complaint—which the board ignored. They then hired a labor attorney and, voila, the president was fired. Turnover dropped 16%.
The Two Faces of a Bad Manager
“The Conniver” Unethical managers know how to look great to their bosses, no matter what. They flatter, control, or distort the information, and they know how to slide past blame. Sometimes they’re embezzlers or corrupt.
“The Mediocrity” Incompetent managers aren’t bullies, thieves or mean, but they cause their staffs to quietly exit: they don’t delegate, develop, or build rapport with their people. They’re often technically proficient people who should never have been made a manager.
A Cloaking Layer: The troops keep quiet
Employees hate going around even a terrible boss because that puts their jobs on the line. Connivers count on this because they’re smart manipulators of power. The managers “below” the bad apple often go to great lengths to protect their employees, and (like the Workgroup member) endure years of abuse so they can “be there” for their teams.
Try this: The chief executive must make the complaint process easy and safe: even small businesses should have a “whistleblower” or ethics and values complaint mechanism. There are third-party services for this. See Index term 5.4.6 Performance evaluation.
Act Carefully Quickly
Sometimes employees complain about a manager because the manager has called them out on poor work habits or has set a meaningful, if scary challenge. Some employees now expect their bosses to be fun pals. Getting to the truth takes time, particularly if you’ve not built rapport with employees at every level.
Use Standards: the Milwaukee Model and the Pledge
Evaluating a manager’s performance quickly, accurately, and fairly is much easier if every manager is held to the same standards of ethics and competence. Organizations that have formally adopted the Pledge of Managerial Power and the Milwaukee Model of Manager Development are able to respond quickly and confidently to complaints.
Build Rapport Everywhere
Managers at every level should have good rapport with employees at every level. This takes time, but not a ton of time.
Try this: Wander around. Hang out in the break room. Hold social events with unstructured time. Finish meetings early so there’s time to get people comfortable talking to you. It looks unproductive, but you’ll pick up clues about bosses who aren’t who you think they are.
