We all have met them. Bad managers - they only care about the shareholders and not about their teams or the organization and its long-term interests. Bad managers communicate in only one way. They never act on what they are told as feedback from their people. They manipulate their teams and their bosses. Result? The people who have been targeted start feeling that they have to watch their backs and have less time for doing work that actually creates value. The management-issues.com website tells us about other signs that suggest that your boss could be a truly bad manager.
Busy all the time
They are so busy that they don’t even have time for their regular work. They are involved in many projects and therefore are a threat for their departments’ targets.
They only manage from a distance
Bad managers love it. They rely on performance indicators, because it allows them not to bother with the day to day activities of their department. And it is a brilliant way of dodging accountability, because after all, they weren't there.
They remember that targets should be vague
Having loose goals makes it easy to achieve them. Bad managers don’t care that they are not getting the optimal results from their teams and departments. They prefer lower performance to being punished for not achieving bold targets.
They blame somebody else every time something happens
Even with targets that are everything but ambitious, something can go wrong. And when it does, bad managers never admit their mistakes. They blame it on inaccurate management reports, they tell you that the economy was slowing down, that it rained too much, it didn't rained enough, whatever you can imagine. They blame colleagues, too. In order to be successful, they say, the organization needs to replace some of its employees. Well, that may be true, but the manager should be the first to be replaced.
They have an exit strategy
When the organization actually wants to get rid of a bad manager, he has already his exit strategy. He knows that he needs to have an organization he can flee to when the time has come.
-jk-