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.