These five behaviours make you a bad boss

Because of bad bosses, we find it really hard to get motivated. We turn up for work and do the bare minimum to stay in the job. We get little in the way of constructive feedback or recognition, so we don’t feel great about ourselves. We don’t feel like we are a member of a team, which in any case feels dysfunctional and competitive – distinctly NOT a team! We really don’t feel we know our manager or why they want us to do what they ask of us. They feel ineffectual when in front of us and, worst of all, seem to have no idea how their behaviours affect us.

This kind of manager makes us want to leave. It’s a great company, and we love what this company does, but anything would be better than this job – and so we polish up our CVs, read the job sites, speak to headhunters, and before long, we move somewhere else. (There is a horrible HR truth that haunts most companies and it is this: employees who rate their direct manager’s performance poorly, are FOUR TIMES as likely to be job hunting.)

Do you recognise this state of affairs? How do you rate your manager? If you are a manager, what chance might this be you? Sadly, the odds are quite high* that the answer is yes to both questions. By my reckoning, more than 50%, I’m afraid.