The testaments about working with a horrible boss are constantly shared but, did you ever think that person could be you? Check with these 5 behaviors
- You never greet any one because you expect to be greeted first; after all you are the boss. You must walk past people majestically, have a serious deadpan face and wait to be saluted, smiled at or trotted after. There is a wall of respect between you and the help. Or so you think but, greeting people that work for you and with you will affirm your position as a leader. You lead by example and this small gesture will command respect rather than the haughty air you think is appropriate for a boss.
- You are Always in your office and only come out to give orders or go out of the building on your way to some important meeting. Everyone else must come to your office and wait to be allowed in to your esteemed presence. And you seem to be too important to bother with the little things and the little people. You behave as though there is a rule that says you must enter your office, close the door and must only be seen by others on appointment or via a summons.
- People stop talking when you walk into a room and shuffle back to work. They have not been slacking off and are not ashamed because you found them idling. They just know not to talk when you walk into the room because you want to be the only one to talk and to be listened to. That silence that falls in the room when you walk in is not respect; it is a sign of your exclusion. Usually you will notice that as soon as you leave the room the chatter soon starts again.
- Your idea of conversation is mockery or unkind banter; either at a member of the team or at the competition. Being unkind and derogative with clever remarks does not make you the intelligent boss. It just makes you an unkind person with unkind words to say about other people. You never have anything concrete and helpful to say, complain about the weather, hate sports (so to speak) and you have ‘no money’. Being boss is hard, you tend to remind, albeit sarcastically.
- People are doing the same thing since…forever, and it looks like no one is going to get a chance to move up, change roles or do your job. You have hired someone to do a job and from January to December, decade after decade you expect them to do just that job. You give them no chance for development, no training and never promote them. Only you can do what you do and no other person can do it or take over your position. And when they leave, you call them traitors, thieves, ungrateful and unprofessional people.
If you work with a team and lead that team, whether in your own business or in a large company or public organization personalities and characters are different and you cannot be everything to everybody (and you certainly will not please everyone all the time ) but, do try to be decent, approachable and kind; all the time.
