Takes credit for others’ work
“A good manager always takes responsibility for the performance
of their team and won’t throw any of their team members “under
the bus” while still providing the team members with all the praise
in public, even for ideas that the manager would’ve come up with
themselves. A bad manager is the opposite. They take all the
credit and blame their employees for the failures, which
obliterates trust and leads to the team starting to also cover for
themselves as opposed to working for the betterment of the company.
There’s nothing worse than working for a manager that’s willing
and happy to claim any big wins the team achieves, but deflects
responsibility when times are tough and losses come around.
Team wins and losses should be shared together, with
management leading the way to ensure wins are multiplied and
losses minimized.”
Doesn’t show appreciation or
give recognition to employees
“We all like to be told we’ve done a great job, and some managers may overlook that when leading a team. You should always let people know when they’re doing a good job, it’s extremely motivating and shows you respect them professionally.” -Matt Reaney, Founder of Big Cloud
-Matt Reaney, Founder of Big Cloud
“A manager is the one leading their team and will also be the one that knows when to give
credit where credit is due. If they cannot appreciate instances where their team exceeds
their expectations, it will be a source of demotivation. This will also worsen if the
manager does not give credit to their team while also taking all the credit for themselves.”
Micromanages
“A poor manager will micro-manage his or her team. They will see
only one way to accomplish a task and will not value the input of
others. Team members are not encouraged to grow, mistakes are
frowned upon and unless a task is completed exactly as the
manager wants it completed (even if completion in another
manner achieves a positive outcome) the manager won’t
recognize the success.” -Cynthia Corsetti, CPCC, SPHR, Executive
Leadership Coach at Cynthia Corsetti Coaching, LLC “Bad
managers fail to give their team personal independence. They
over-delegate and over-assign. Employees who feel they don’t
have freedom will become disillusioned and frustrated.” -Nicholas
Hobson, Workplace Psychologist and Co-Founder of
PsychologyCompass.com “Controlling your team in minute detail
is a terrible trait for a manager. You should hire a team you trust
to do the work and give them the freedom to carry it out.
Micromanaging leads to a lack of motivation and creativity!”-Matt
Reaney, Founder of Big Cloud
Unable to trust (control freak)
“Some managers are unable to give projects completely
to their juniors. The junior will do the work, but everything needs
to be funneled through to the manager for approval – which is ok
on some things, but when a manager refuses to let anything go
without approval, it results in bottlenecks. You’ll have juniors
sitting around waiting for their manager to approve their work, so
there’s a huge loss of productivity. Managers need to be able to
trust the people they employ to do their work correctly.” -Michael
Sunderland, Managing Director at Full Stack Talent “Similar to
micromanagement, the untrusting manager wants the employee
to get the work done, but is excessive in checking timing and
details. They may feel that employees who are very successful are
a threat, and so place greater emphasis in trying to catch them
doing the wrong thing.” -Richard Pummell, Human Resources
Lead at Develop Intelligence.
Plays favorites
“Managers that pick out certain team members as their favorites
are bad news. Often there are some members of the team that
are more similar in terms of culture, values, or even work ethic, so
it’s easy for managers to relate more easily to these people.
However, when this results in them promoting their work over
others, giving more weight to their opinions, or giving more
assistance, it crosses the line. Other team members are quick to
notice and can easily become disengaged as a result.” -Fiona
Adler, Founder of Actioned.com “It can be hard to be recognised
in the world of work, but even more so if your manager favours
certain members of the team. Staff can feel really unmotivated if
they have a manager with favourites; it means their hard work
goes unnoticed. Showing favouritism towards specific employees
also leads members of the team to feel frustrated with the
company dynamic when it comes to completing deadlines and
making complaints about those certain members of staff.” -Chris
Wain, Sales Director for Africa Travel.
Doesn’t provide clear
or realistic direction
“A bad manager is one who does not clearly define for employees
their responsibilities. This can lead to confusion amongst team
members and work not getting done if no one understands that
the tasks are their responsibility.” -Nate Masterson, CEO of Maple
Holistics “[One thing you’ll find from bad managers is] setting
unrealistic expectations with no guidance. There could be a lack of
teamwork that is needed in order to complete a project. It is
important for managers to know the difference between
overworking their employees and challenging them. It is
important for employees to be resourceful and learn their own
way through a project, but it is also vital to show them the vital
resources.”-Jacob Dayan, Esq., CEO and Co-founder of
Community Tax
Is unavailable or avoids
tough conversations
“As a business owner, your door should always be figuratively and
literally open to employees. It’s up to you to foster a collaborative
environment, where team members feel comfortable approaching
you with questions, concerns, new ideas, and even criticisms. If
you set a tone of being too busy or too important for employees,
you’ll likely miss out on the valuable insight they can offer.” -David
Scarola, Vice President of The Alternative Board “Dealing with
conflict is part of the job description for managers—in fact, a
study from the American Management Association found that
24% of a manager’s day is spent managing conflict. It’s a
challenging task that demands emotional intelligence along with
an arsenal of conflict resolution techniques—and a manager
simply isn’t doing their job if they shy away from conflict
management responsibilities.” -Ben Aston, Founder of The Digital
Project Manager.
Lack of empathy or compassion
(low emotional intelligence)
“Effective leadership at any level requires the ability to recognize
and control one’s own emotions. It also requires the ability to
show empathy, recognize and influence the emotions of others. A
poor manager lacks this skill.” -Cynthia Corsetti, CPCC, SPHR,
Executive Leadership Coach at Cynthia Corsetti Coaching, LLC
“Another quality of a bad manager is not caring if their employees
are overworked. An employee’s mental health is crucial to the
employee’s life as well as their productivity at work, and a boss
who is not in tune with what their employees are experiencing
does not value the needs of their employees.” -Nate Masterson,
CEO of Maple Holistics “When a manager fails to make a
concerted effort to understand the needs and desires of their
employees, and how they can help them reach both individual and
group goals, morale suffers. This causes lowered productivity and
a higher turnover rate.” -Kieran Canisius, CEO & Co-Founder of
Seuss Recruiting, Seuss Consulting, and Zocket.
Unable to listen and respond
to feedback (poor listener)
“This is probably the most damaging characteristic that a manager can have. They won’t listen
to a person speaking and therefore they never truly get to the route of the issue. Instead, the
manager hears a few words and begins to interrupt with a solution, which may not even be the right
solution because they didn’t truly listen to the problem. The manager with poor listening skills
has no chance of having a productive and effective team.” -Cynthia Corsetti, CPCC, SPHR, Executive
Leadership Coach at Cynthia Corsetti Coaching, LLC. – they could hear
real-life feedback from customers, for example, or have insights into where processes could be
refined A manager who’s too arrogant to realise the value of this information not only misses
out on opportunities to improve things; They also alienate the staff by failing to listen. As a
consultant who’s zipped around numerous companies for over a decade, I’ve encountered a great
many managers like this.” -Ben Taylor, Founder of HomeWorkingClub “[With bad managers…] One
way communication is rampant. In any meeting they lead, their voice dominates the air waves.
They don’t care what you think, they don’t ask questions, and when you give input, their focus
is explaining why you are wrong.” -Michael Wilkinson, CMF, CPF, Founder and Managing Director
of Leadership Strategies, Inc. and Author of “The Secrets of Facilitation” “Bad managers speak
more than they listen. When you’re the loudest voice in the room, it’s easy to forget that you
hired a bunch of smart people that are more qualified to do their jobs than you are. Managers
sometimes consider employee silence to be an indicator of agreement or an absence of ideas.
However, employee silence is more likely due to feeling uncomfortable speaking. Perhaps they
don’t want to interrupt a manager who leaves little room for others to speak, or they think
their idea will go over poorly, or they don’t want to point out flaws in a manager’s plan.” -Dave
Lane, CEO of Inventiv The managers at Eclaro are likely great communicators, as their employees
gave this company a high score on “internal communication”!
Doesn’t lead by example
“I’m sure everyone’s seen a manager who talks to their employees about the times being
tough and everyone has to work longer hours for the same pay, then leaves the office
early to play golf. While hypocrisy often isn’t this obvious, it’s a common problem with
far-reaching consequences for the morale and performance of the team, as well as the credibility
of the manager. A manager always leads by example, whether they want it or not.” -Jesse Nieminen,
Co-Founder of Viima “Pitching in with the ‘grunt’ work, being one of the team and showing up is so
important for leading others. No one wants to work for someone who never shows up, doesn’t do work
themselves or acts superior. Be someone they can follow in the right path!” -Matt Reaney, Founder of
Big Cloud “[Also known as a] “do as I say, not as I do” mentality. As an employer, all eyes are on you,
which means, you need to be your model employee. You can’t expect your employees to be chipper if you’re
bringing in a bad attitude every day.”
Lacks humility or
self-awareness
“I believe lack of humility is a trait of a bad manager because,
even though they are in a position of leadership, managers don’t
have all the answers. If they pretend like they do (and I have seen
many managers/leaders do this), then they end up wasting time
and valuable resources. A good manager realizes they can’t
accomplish everything on their own and that’s when they’re able
to leverage the strengths of their team.” -Tyler Hanna, CEO, and
Co-Founder of 8-bit Rex “[Some bad managers] have such low
self-awareness that they blame others for their own failings. They
don’t see how their action and inaction contribute significantly to
the problems they have.” -Michael Wilkinson, CMF, CPF, Founder
and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc. and Author
of “The Secrets of Facilitation”
Manages with fear,
not fairness
“The manager [who leads with fear] wants employees to feel they
are lucky to have a job, and whenever a request is made it
includes a tacit threat that if the request isn’t delivered, there will
be ramifications down the road. This can also include the manager
who selects favorites and gives others the cold shoulder – and will
frequently change how they treat an individual employee.
Employees never know where they stand, and generally dislike
any interactions with the manager.” -Richard Pummell, Human
Resources Lead at DevelopIntelligence “The old-style “my way or
the highway” mindset of management has no place in modern
society, but there are still plenty of managers out there that try to
lead this way. While a fear-based style might get some short-term
results, the long-term negative impact will always be more
substantial. Servant leadership is the only way to drive consistent
results in a business world now that is as complex and dynamic as
it’s ever been.” -Kris Hughes, Senior Content Marketing Manager
at ProjectManager.com.
Is complacent about poor
performing or toxic
team members
“Keeping a bad teammate on the team is poor decision. It’s not
doing any service to the weak team member and it’s not fair to all
the other teammates. It is the most dangerous and most common
sign of a weak manager by suffering a poor performing team
member and not cutting them loose before it’s too late.” -Zach
Hendrix Co-Founder of GreenPaL.
Doesn’t follow through
or
recognize their own
responsibilities
“One of the main qualities I see in a bad manager is that they
think they get more freedom, when in fact they actually get more
work. I’ve seen it time and time again, someone becomes a
manager and thinks they don’t have to follow all the rules or do
the small duties it takes to maintain a team. In short, they get lazy,
and there’s no quicker way to get your team to quit on you than
by being egotistical and entitled.” -Nick Glassett, Founder of
OriginLeadership.com “Countless managers receive requests,
questions, concerns etc from their team and either 1) never
respond or 2) respond and then fail to follow through. This can be
very demotivating for team members and sets the tone for a
company culture of dropping the ball. Great managers are so
organized, their team knows they can count on them to follow
up.” -Kevin Armstrong, Owner of The Alternative Board –
Vancouver.
