The Fortune.com article How to deal with your crazy boss by Stanley Bing leaves readers wondering how individuals with the characteristics described are ever promoted in the first place. In reality, sometimes an employee will be saddled with having to deal with a challenging boss. If employees need to apply some of the self preservation methods that Bing suggests, it is a certainty that energy will be diverted away from business tasks towards sidestepping negative behaviour.
But how is it that some companies get manager selection right, and others do not? Gordon Adler suggests in Harvard Business Review that the decision to promote top performers be considered carefully and be based upon the potential to lead others. Organizations use a variety of methods including evaluating past performance, observation, personality testing and challenge assignments to support promotion decisions. The other consideration should be whether or not the individual wants to be in a supervisory position. Sometimes, alternative positions can be offered to a top performer to allow him or her to advance without having to supervise others.
Another part of the solution lies with understanding how some management candidates run into difficulty. In Canadian Business Online, Michael Stern identifies behaviors that leaders should strive to eliminate. Some of the identified behaviors relate to not being able to let go of tasks and let employees do their work independently, discriminating or showing favoritism, not understanding the individual needs of employees, withholding recognition and praise and “letting emotion get in the way of your message.” Selecting a manager based upon ability is part of the equation, but the other part involves teaching skills on an ongoing basis. Since many of these skills can take a long time to develop, learning needs to begin before an individual is promoted. Thus, a culture of leadership development supports skill development in all employees beginning the day they are hired. As with any initiative, embedding the desired values and goals into the organizational culture furthers success.
Some of the things to consider may include:
-are leadership competencies identified?
-are leadership skills valued within your organization?
-do goals reflect the value of leadership skills?
-can employees access support/training to learn the desired leadership skills?
-are individuals who display or strive to build the desired leadership skills rewarded?
Consequently, the performance management process continues to play an important role. Gordon Adler emphasises the importance of setting clear expectations and goals, providing training, coaching and ongoing performance assessment to help new leaders transition successfully. And, writes Wallace Immen, in Report on Business, “because there are learning curves, employees shouldn't fear failure along the way will derail them.”
As organizations move into the future, demands on managers will most likely become more complex. Considering the predication made in Management Futures The World in 2018, that “changing expectations of work and the impact of new technologies will require managers and leaders to develop a new range of skills that focus on emotional and spiritual intelligence, judgment and the ability to stimulate creative thinking to improve productivity,” an investment in leadership skill development may be timely.
References:
Adler, Gordon. “When a New Manager Stumbles, Who’s at Fault?”Harvard Business Review [www.harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp]. Obtained, April 1, 2008.
Bing, Stanley. “How to deal with your crazy boss” Fortune.com [www.money.cnn.com]. Obtained April 1, 2008.
Chartered Management Institute. Management Futures The World in 2018. UK: Chartered Management Institute, March 2008.
Immen, Wallace. “Primed to sail, not to fail” Report on Business.com [www.theglobeandmail.com]. November 23, 2007.
Stern, Michael. “The 10 worst leadership habits” Canadian Business Online [www.canadianbusiness.com]. March 31, 2008.
