In leadership roles, we look at how well the people (or the team or department) we manage are performing, according to pre-determined goals.

The ongoing review is to work out ways to enhance performance, increase productivity and encourage our people to meet goals when they are not achieving them.

Whilst we expect them to perform the role to the best of their ability, we also expect them to be polite to us, and each other.

What about when you have the boss from hell?  The person who greets you sometimes and ignores you at others?

The boss who tells you what to do, but is not prepared to do something themselves?

The same boss who tells the team they want everybody to be ‘highly performing’ and yet doesn’t finish their own work on time.

‘No Clue’

A recent study conducted in the USA, found that almost 80 per cent of the employees surveyed identified their boss as a ‘lousy manager.’

Seventy per cent of people in that study stated that their immediate superior had ‘no clue’ as to how to be a good manager or lead people effectively.

Author Harvey Hornstein, Ph.D, estimates that 90 per cent of the US work force has been subjected to abusive behavior by a boss at some time.

He bases his conclusions on a survey of nearly 1000 workers over eight years.

Source: http://www.quintcareers.com/bad_bosses.html

The better the leader, the more

engaged the staff

Research informs us that happy employees are more productive and add value to the bottom line.  We also know the better the leader, the more engaged staff are.

In a recent study completed by Harvard Business Review on the effectiveness of 2865 leaders in a large financial services company, a direct correlation was found between levels of employee engagement and the overall effectiveness of their bosses. (Judged not just by the employees themselves, but by their bosses, colleagues, and other associates).

The overall finding was that the best leaders were supervising the happiest, most engaged, most committed employees — those who are happier than 92% of their colleagues.

Source: https://hbr.org/2012/07/how-damaging-is-a-bad-boss

All the difference

You can throw money, prestige, opportunity and excellent rewards at people to increase their engagement and motivation, but nothing will make a difference if they are stuck under a ‘bad’ boss.

People lose motivation and interest – and profitability walks out the door!

A difference of $250 million

In a study completed in 2000 by Researchers Rucci, Kirn, and Quinn, they identified the ‘employee-customer-profit chain’ at a leading American organisation, Sears.

This was a straightforward dynamic in which employee behaviour affected customer behaviour, which in turn affected company financial performance.

Specifically, in Sears’ case, when employee satisfaction improved by five per cent, customer satisfaction improved by 1.3 per cent, which led to a .05 per cent improvement in revenue.

That might not sound significant, but for US$50 billion Sears, this resulted in an extra US$250 million in sales.

Source: https://hbr.org/2012/07/how-damaging-is-a-bad-boss-exa

Employee satisfaction is driven by leadership.  A great leader makes significant impact on driving the troops forward.

A bad boss makes significant impact on the troops walking out the door, having secured better employment opportunities elsewhere.

Conclusion

Because we spend so much time at work, it is critical that we enjoy what we do and the people with whom we work.

Working under a bad boss can have a significant impact on our health.

Whilst there are various avenues to pursue to attempt to resolve challenging behaviours with our boss, the time may come where we need to walk away from the role and organisation, in search for greater peace and ultimately, sanity.

– Caryn Walsh is an International Business Consultant, Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker