photo (c) lavagirl66
I hemmed and hawed about re-posting this blog excerpt given that the author is using a negative though humourous (up for debate) tone to get his points across.
I landed on doing so because I think that there enough useful information behind what he is trying to say despite the fact that the tone isn’t altogether what I would have chosen.
Where I would differ from his perspective is that I think that the motivations behind these behaviours aren’t always so negative as he seems to imply. We fall into habits, we run out of time, we’re stressed and we fall back to our default behaviours etc.
For what it’s worth, here is a summary of his list…
How to Be a Horrible Boss – Diego Basch’s Blog.
- Talk a lot, do not listen much Why is this a problem: you run the danger of developing a self re-enforced view of what’s happening to your team.
- Be patronizing Bottom line: “f you were promoted to manage an awesome team, there surely will be stars who know more about their jobs than you do.”
- Be as cryptic as possible, never direct My commentary: I agree that we can pay we the price for not taking the time to explaining, the (high level, see point above) “what” and perhaps more importantly the “why” of what we are looking for.
- Encourage bureaucracy, and demand visibility into everything.
- Show them who’s boss
- Don’t learn about management
letter to a new manager 