Send to KindleEveryone has a boss. CEOs answer to a board. Small business leaders always have to answer to the customers. When the boss is great, life is good for his or her subordinate leaders. When I’ve worked for good bosses, I was able to accomplish more, learn more, and I believe become a better leader.
But, it wasn’t always so.
Unfortunately, I’ve been in situations where the boss wasn’t a good leader and times when the organizational hierarchy was completely off the rails. In those situations I still learned and I believe became a better leader, but it was a lot harder to accomplish as much.
Why is an unfortunate truth about leadership.
One of a leader’s responsibilities, in fact I’d say a primary responsibility is to make it easier for people to do their work. That means, in order to make life easier for the people doing the work, the leader must insulate them from the craziness.
There are some steps a leader can take to help cushion the effects of a bad boss.
1. Understand what your boss thinks the mission is, but be crystal clear with your people about what they are really there to do. Make sure they understand their importance to accomplishing that mission and that you understand their importance too. This sounds a little odd, but in many cases, the bad boss doesn’t really understand what the people do.
2. As much as possible, always represent your people’s needs to the boss. If there is a directive that will be bad for them, explain your concerns in a clear and unemotional way. Do this in private. Never challenge the boss in public. That puts him or her on the defensive.
3. Put as much positive spin as possible on directives, even if they don’t make sense. You’ve had your say (step 2). Whining and moaning about it to your people won’t help.
4. Never miss an opportunity to point out the good things your people do. Often bad bosses are so wrapped up in their own problems, or narcissism, that they don’t see anything good anywhere else.
5. Put your body armor on and take the hits. This is the least fun part of the job but it’s how you insulate your people from that craziness I mentioned. Let your boss tell you how bad everything is and how your people aren’t cutting it and why the world would be a better place if they would just worked harder/longer/better. That’s not to say you shouldn’t defend them, but chances are that will not do much good. Your job is to take it and not pass it on. That’s what builds the insulating layer between them and the bad boss.
I much prefer to write and speak about the good parts of leadership but sometimes it isn’t fun. It can still be rewarding when you’re able to get the job done, and keep you’re people’s morale up.
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