Comments for InsideWork

Comment on Thanksgiving According to Bruce by Dianne

Dianne — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:16:08 +0000

I came across your profile on elance and something prompted me to – ack, sorry – google you (wanted to see what you’d published with NavPress). Nice work. (I’m just starting out on elance and trying to see what works). Blessings,

Comment on 10: Denying Reality by David Rupert

David Rupert — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:59:14 +0000

I see it all the time. Business leaders want to believe something so bad, they’ll create the charts, invent the trend, and believe anything they want to believe.

David, Red Letter Believers, http://www.RedLetterBelievers.com, “Salt and Light”

Comment on I Don’t Have Time to Develop People! by Andy

Andy — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:22:46 +0000

Great insight, everyone. Thanks all for sharing, and thanks Dan for writing!

Comment on Going To Your Happy Place by Glynn

Glynn — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:15:57 +0000

Jim, I think the tone is definitely set at the top; it’s also set by the culture and history of the organization. Often we cling to a hope that "if the CEO only knew," then magic would happen and justice prevail. That doesn’t happen very often, for a variety of reasons. But this I know: a bad boss can’t last for an extended period without his or her own boss knowing about it and tacitly approving the behavior.

Comment on Going To Your Happy Place by Bradley J Moore

Bradley J Moore — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:55:43 +0000

I have a series of posts on my blog under the category of "It’s Okay to Feel Stupid Sometimes," and it’s unbelievable the amount of traffic I get every day from people doing google searches that say, "My boss makes me feel stupid." Then come the emails and horror stories, people pouring out their hearts to me and asking for advice. It’s sad. There are a huge number of people out there feeling pummelled by their bosses. Whether these people bring it on themselves, is another question, but I believe there is a very needy niche out there of people who need help and support around managing this issue.

As for me, I have mostly worked for decent (not perfect) bosses throughout my career, and am also one myself – decent but not perfect, that is.

Comment on Going To Your Happy Place by Jim Hancock

Jim Hancock — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:55:57 +0000

Glynn, you make a very strong—and very painful—point. My observations here fail to address systemic issues. It seems unlikely to me that very many bosses are bad in isolation. In all but the simplest one-boss/one-employee arrangements, there are witnesses to the bad bossing. Even if these witnesses are not org-chart peers to the one doing the mismanagement, they still have some measure of influence up, down and laterally.

I wonder how many of us look away rather than engaging when we see bad bosses wreaking havoc in our organizations… One way or another, would you agree that’s a tone set at the top?

Comment on Going To Your Happy Place by Glynn

Glynn — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:12:02 +0000

I’ve had two really bad bosses over a long career. One was a combination of emotionally dysfunctional and functionally incompetent – but knew how to manage upward. The second was a Dr. Jeykll/Mr. Hyde — nice person on the outside but emotionally crippled on the inside — but knew how to manage upward. Notice the common theme. The damage these two people did was incalcuable to their subordinates and the organization — and yet they survived for years because they knew how to manage upward. That leads to one of three possibilities — the organizations themselves were dysfunctional, the top leaderships were dysfunctional, or both. In both cases, the organizations got to pay for counseling and even physical therapy that people used to deal with the bad bosses.