Most of us have worked for a bad manager at some stage in our working lives.
While everyone can have a bad day there is a big difference between coming into work in a foul mood and being a bad at managing staff. In fact, a bad manager can directly lead to high staff turnover, stress, poor moral and reduced productivity.
Not everyone is cut out for management however in most cases a willingness to change and adapt are enough to keep a group of employees happy with your performance.
For any aspiring bosses out there we have come up with 3 types of manager that you should avoid turning into.
#1 The Ghost Boss
In some ways leaving staff to their own devices can be a good thing. It allows them a certain degree of freedom and lets them take ownership of their work.
The problem with the Ghost Boss is that they are never around when you need them. Being ‘hands off’ is all well and good until something goes wrong or that supervision meeting that has been rescheduled twice has just been cancelled again.
A good manager is one that gives their staff a degree of autonomy but is when needed. The Ghost Boss just isn’t really there at all.
#2 The Micromanagement Obsessive
On the complete opposite end of the scale is the micromanager.
You can’t even open up a new Excel spreadsheet without this boss having something to say about it. They might have an inherent fear of failure or simply don’t trust anyone but whatever their problem is it is their staff that suffer.
The micromanager prevents staff from being creative, feeling that they have no control over their own workload and generally leads to poor staff morale and people searching for new jobs when the boss isn’t looking over their shoulder.
#3 The Workaholic
How does getting a message asking for a project update at 1am on a Saturday sound? Probably not great.
The workaholic boss takes passion for the job to a whole new level. We all want to do well in our place of work but to do that we also need a healthy work/life balance but the 24/7 boss doesn’t have this, at all.
Calling you at all hours of the night, wondering why you need a whole 2 hours off work to go to the doctor and sending emails over the weekend – there is no work/life balance with the workaholic.
Starting Your Managerial Career
If you aim to be a manager one day or if you are already in the process of becoming one, then these are the three main types of bosses you should avoid aspiring to be.
Micromanaging, harassing your team 24/7 or being completely off the radar altogether won’t do much for team moral, productivity or staff retention.
The best managers are those who give their team a degree of autonomy, are on hand when needed and adhere to a healthy work/life balance.
