10 Strategies To Handle An Impossible Boss
A bad boss is not only undesirable; new
research carried out at the Université Francois Rabelais,
and published in the Journal of Business and Psychology found that bad bosses affect how different areas of your
life relate to one another including your physical health, raising your risk for heart
disease; and your morale while in the office.
Of course the best way to manage a bad boss is not to have one in the first place because a difficult supervisor can make a misery of your budding career.
Hopefully the strategies below will help you on
your job:
1. Understand what your boss’ expectations are: you need to identify what he cares about, what are his fears
and his measure of success or failure. When you know what drives your boss
(even if your boss may not be fully conscious of it), you can speak to “his
listening,” frame your opinions and use language in ways that line up with his
core values, concerns and priorities.
2. Adjust yourself to their preferences: Observe your boss’ behavioural style and preferences. Is he fast-paced and quick to make decisions? Is he slow to think
about things, needing time to process information?
3. If your boss is a yeller, a criticiser, or a judge –
stand firm: If you’re doing the best
job you can do, keep your head held high and don’t give him the satisfaction of
pushing you about. Rather ask questions, seek to understand, and work to
defuse a difficult situation instead of cowering or responding in anger
4. Manage-up: Lynn Taylor, a workplace expert
and consultant, offers a
constructive solution; taking a
step back, trying to understand the motivation behind your boss' behaviour, and
then taking a collaborative approach to fixing it. Even if you aren't being
managed down, maybe you can make some progress by managing your boss.
5. Work around their faults: While
it may sound counter intuitive to support a bad boss in becoming more
successful, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by making him look bad,
going to war or facilitating his (or her) failure. If he is as bad as you
think, he will likely do a pretty good job of that all by himself. Exposing his
incompetence will only compound your own misery and may even damage your
reputation.
6. Be Proactive: Particularly
when you're dealing with a micromanager, head off your boss' requests by
anticipating them and getting things done before they come to you.
7. Do your study: Margie
Warrell, a keynote speaker and the bestselling author advice that; if you
are moving to a new organisation, do your researches to make sure you’re not
jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Sometimes in our desperation to
escape a toxic work environment we fail to take notice of the warning signs
that the new job we're taking will only be worse. Have a coffee with
whoever you know at the new company to get a sense of the culture, employee
engagement, moral, and management style. Investing a few hours up front could
spare you a few years of frustration.
8. Keep a personal journal of your communications: Make sure to document interactions with your boss—be it requests or criticisms—so you can refer back to them if he or she ever contradicts earlier given instruction.
8. Keep a personal journal of your communications: Make sure to document interactions with your boss—be it requests or criticisms—so you can refer back to them if he or she ever contradicts earlier given instruction.
9. Deliver
on your tasks: No matter how bad your boss' behaviour, avoid
letting it affect your work. You want to stay on good terms with other superiors in the organization (and retain your job!).
10. Be sure you are not a difficult employee; who
is pointing the blame finger in the wrong direction.
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